Mass Timber Market Updates - April 2024 - Week Eighteen

Get ready to revolutionize your understanding of mass timber construction! This week, we bring you a whirlwind of global updates, starting with Cetra's strategic move to open a new office in Nymir, Sweden, to cater to the surging demand in the north. Celebrate with us as Studio Gang earns a prestigious honor award for their Crescent College Renewal Project in New York. The revival of the Conway plant by Mercer Timber is another highlight you won't want to miss—it's a significant milestone that marks resilience and innovation in the industry. 

We're also thrilled to share the latest buzz around the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota and its pioneering use of mass timber, embodying the legacy of conservation. Johns Hopkins University is making waves with their new student center, and the Humber Cultural Hub has achieved the Zero Carbon Building Design Standard certification, setting new benchmarks in sustainability. Tune in to our podcast, and don't forget to check out the exclusive photos and insights on our LinkedIn feed. This episode is packed with inspiration and cutting-edge developments that every mass timber enthusiast needs to hear!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Ladies and gentlemen, we are live. This is the moment you all have been waiting for. It's time for the global sensation, the one, the only, the undisputed heavyweight podcast in the world the Mass Timber Construction Podcast. And now here's Paul Kramer, your host. Good morning, good afternoon or good evening, wherever you are in the world today. Welcome to the Mass Timber Construction Podcast Weekly Updater. My name is Paul Kramer, your host, and welcome to another week of all the news happening around the world in Mass Timber Construction land. Before we get into it, though, please remember to hit the subscribe button, and if you'd like to submit a manuscript to our academic journal, please do so at masstimberconstructioncom. Masstimberconstructioncom.

Speaker 1: 1:17

Let's get into the news this week in mass timber construction land and Cetra has opened a new office in Nymir in Sweden, which is close to customers and the market in the area. The office is staffed by two Cetra building solutions experts and is focusing on the fast growth parts of northern Sweden by establishing a clear presence in the region's largest city, covering the local region. The industrial boom in the north has been boosting housing construction to levels that are among the highest in the country, and etc is seeing a marked increase in demand for mass timber construction specifically for apartment buildings, alongside those with numerous other offices, commercial premises also being built, as well as preschools, schools and health care facilities also using mass timber. Well done to the team, etc. Great to see you supporting the entire swedish market. And to the us now. And studio gang, who's headed by genie gang, which is an architectural practice in new york, received the honor award for the crescentig College Renewal Project at the San Francisco chapter of the American Institute of Architects Architecture Awards for 2024. Congratulations to the team at Studio Gang. An impressive award for the renewal project. If you'd like to see images and read more about the article, please head to our LinkedIn feed.

Speaker 1: 2:46

The news this week that after a year since the company went bankrupt, the Conway plant has reopened for Mercer Timber and you can see some of the images on our LinkedIn feed. They are looking to increase orders and production very, very soon. So congratulations to the team at Mercer. Really great to see another industry giant supporting others that may have stumbled on the journey to producing a better built environment through mass timber. Then we have some progress photos on the John Hopkins University Homewood campus that is now rising out of the ground near charles and 33rd streets. The 250 million dollar hopkins student center is one of the first contemporary buildings in baltimore and it represents an amazing step forward in sustainability using heavy timber construction. Although the student center is only under construction for, say, a year now, much of the work already involved in the massive underground foundation that won't be visible to the building has been completed and on the last several months, it's been possible to see the structure take shape in the ground. If you'd like to see more, head to our LinkedIn feed and have a look at the amazing photos.

Speaker 1: 4:04

The recently reported Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota, in the Badlands, is scheduled to start construction, after a long announcement, since 2021. I think we announced it in April. It's the 26th president of the US being honored with a mass timber building. Honored with a mass timber building. Mercer Mass Timber, a low-carbon manufacturing timber building company, announced that it will provide the mass timber for the library, and the company said the project honors the president's legacy of conservation by utilizing local sources of renewable resources such as mass timber. In partnership with the general contractor, mercer Mass Timber will provide mass timber design, assistance, materials and coordination and logistics for the project, including the signature roof structure, which is an impressive site. If you want to go and have a look at the images that are available, you can head to our Mass Timber Construction Journal LinkedIn feed general linkedin feed.

Speaker 1: 5:10

And the new humber cultural hub has been officially certified under the zero carbon building design standard v1 by the canadian green building council. Spanning 3 250 square feet, the humber cultural hub will produce a new home for humber's award-winning facility of media and creative arts and create a new 318-bed student residence. The zero-carbon building is highly energy efficient and minimizes greenhouse gas emissions from building and operations. The encapsulated mass timber construction incorporated into the superstructure reduces greenhouse gas emissions and also associated with extracting and producing transport building materials, as mass timber has a lower embodied carbon compared to concrete and steel. If you'd like to see the finished article, you can head to our linkedin feed. An impressive building. Congratulations to the team and well done to the students who will be inhabiting and visiting the new Humber Cultural Hub.

Speaker 1: 6:11

And finally, in this episode, in March this year, heinz broke ground on its FAT F-A-T Food Art Technology Village Project, an 850,000 square feet mixed-use development in Fort Lauderdale in Florida. It's a 5.6 acre urban development known as ABA, a fat village, which will introduce housing, retail, residence, restaurants, entertainment, office space and an arts and technology village. It will be a district for all. Heinz will use mass timber for the construction for the office development dubbed Timber Transport and Technology its T3 sequence, with South Florida-based Blanca Commercial Real Estate as its leasing partner for the T3 building. If you'd like to see some more of this amazing precinct called FAT, head to our Mass Timber Construction Journal LinkedIn feed. And that's it, folks. That's all we've got time for this week in Mass Timber Construction land. Look forward to catching up with you again very, very soon, soon. Good morning, good afternoon or good evening wherever you are in the world today. My name is paul kramer signing off on the mastim construction podcast. Thank you.