Wood has been used in construction for thousands of years. Evidence of wood has been found in structures built up to 10,000 years ago. The first European longhouse was made of timber in 6,000 BC. But in recent decades, steel and concrete have made wood construction all but obsolete.
All that's starting to change. Mass timber construction has appeared on the scene, and it promises many economic benefits to the U.P.: improving the use of the region’s vast forests while creating jobs for residents, environmental protection, and economic growth for the timber, wood products and construction industries.
As of June 2023, there were 856 mass-timber buildings under construction or already built across the country, and 1,004 were in design, according to
Woodworks, part of the Wood Products Council. The council is a nonprofit that provides free project support and education for wood building construction.
Across Michigan, seven mass timber buildings are under construction or have recently been built, and 55 are in the pipeline, says Sandra Lupien, director of
masstimber@MSU, a Michigan State University program that conducts education, research, outreach and curriculum development for mass timber construction. The buildings include apartments, offices, schools – even a veterinary clinic.
Because of the panels’ large size, mass timber is not usually used to build single-family houses.
“There’s a reason it’s called ‘mass’ timber — the pieces (of material) are massive,” Lupien says.
Mass timber construction uses one to two-inch boards layered and glued together into large, strong wood panels. It protects the environment by employing a material that uses less fossil fuel to produce and stores carbon rather than releasing it.
Michigan Mass Timber
Two Michigan universities are working with the state’s Department of Natural Resources to develop mass timber construction technologies and promote mass timber construction.
In the U.P., Michigan Technological University (MTU) is exploring the production of mass timber materials, using hardwood such as red maple and cross-laminated technology (CLT). Michigan State University (MSU) is working with softwoods such as pine and focusing on education and outreach.
The recently built
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Center for Teaching and Learning at MSU is a model of mass timber construction. The building is a three- and four-story structure using eye-catching wood of many shapes and colors, both outside and inside.
Another showpiece of mass timber construction is the DNR’s customer service center, now under construction in Newberry, says Patrick Mohney, senior lands program manager with the DNR’s Office of Public Lands. The building will include housing, offices and community space.
Another example is Southtown in downtown Ann Arbor, an eight-story building with apartments and retail, office and community space.
“People see the value (of mass timber construction),” Lupien says. “It’s beautiful. The material is durable. There are carbon, climate and sustainability benefits. There are potential economic benefits. And there are biophilic benefits.”
Biophilic refers to the aesthetic and human benefits of bringing nature indoors. “Research has found that when we have materials like exposed wood in buildings, the occupants of those buildings report better mental health, a sense of well-being and greater productivity,” Lupien says.
Using forest resources
Mass timber construction also offers a better way to put Michigan’s vast forest lands to use. According to the DNR, Michigan has more than 19.3 million acres of forest. The U.P. accounts for 45 percent of the forest land, while the Lower Peninsula is home to only 18 percent.
‘The DNR is the largest landowner in the state of Michigan,” says Mohney. “So we like to help build and develop new and innovative markets for forest products in Michigan. This is highly beneficial to the state because it is such a big industry.”
Mohney says that mass timber construction will be an important option for the forest products and construction industries in the future, and maybe a major player. He doesn’t see it replacing steel and concrete, but it will become one attractive option.
Mohney says the forest industry is on board with mass timber construction because it will enable production of innovative products that can open new markets for timber, especially low-grade timber that can’t be used for finished products like flooring or cabinets.
Although interest in mass timber construction is increasing, Michigan has no plant producing the building material. The closest are in Ontario and Illinois, says Mohney. Both MTU and MSU are hoping to change that by promoting development of a mass timber production facility in Michigan.
“Instead of hauling mass timber from Canada, why can’t we start a processing facility in Michigan? Michigan has wood, but it’s struggling to sell and use it optimally,” says
Raju Pokharel, an assistant professor in
Michigan State University’s Department of Forestry. “Using wood means more revenue for landowners, which means better management of forests. When there’s money, forests can be managed better. not just for timber, but for other benefits like water quality and wildlife habitat.”
Pokharel is studying ways Michigan can employ its forest lands to capitalize on the mass timber boom.
Hardwood mass timber is not presently certified by the Forest Services Council for use in construction. Mark Rudnicki, director of the Michigan Forest Biomaterials Institute, expects the certifying body to include hardwood in its new set of standards, coming soon.
Different approaches
Michigan Tech’s mass timber construction work differs from MSU’s. It focuses on hardwood instead of softwood. Hardwoods come from broad-leaved trees that lose their leaves annually, like maple and oak, while softwoods come from evergreen trees, the kind with needles instead of leaves, like pine, fir, spruce and cedar.
In
MTU’s College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, mass timber research is focusing on cross-laminated timber. This is a method of producing wood panels by gluing layers of hardwood boards cross-grain to each other, forming panels. The technique has been used in Europe for more than 20 years.
Not only are these panels lightweight and extremely strong, but they are also more fire resistant than concrete or steel, says Rudnicki. It may seem counter-intuitive, but when wood chars, it remains stable, while steel melts and concrete falls, he explains. “Just look at the World Trade Center’s collapse,” he says.
The only technology needed to produce cross-laminated mass timber is a cross-laminated timber press, which Rudnicki admits is very expensive. Michigan Tech was able to purchase one of the large hydraulic presses with funding from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Tech’s focus on hardwood isn’t on competition with MSU’s softwood work, says Rudnicki. “I don’t think it is good to characterize it as competing with softwood,” he says. “I see this just as a diversification of wood as a building material. We want to use all of the biobased material that we can to replace carbon-intensive materials like concrete and steel. “MTU and MSU are siblings, both competing against steel and concrete, and the use of fossil fuels to produce them,” Rudnicki says.
The DNR’s Mohney agrees. “MTU’s and MSU’s work are complementary to each other,” he says.
Why is mass timber construction beneficial to the environment? It takes an enormous amount of fossil fuel to produce concrete and steel, Rudicki and Mohney explain. Also, wood stores carbon, improving air quality.
Rudnicki says a near-term impact of his team’s work will be inclusion of common Michigan hardwood species into standard CLT production, and the long-term impact may be the establishment of a CLT manufacturing facility in the U.P.
Another MTU faculty member, Associate Professor Xinfeng Xie, is leading a U.S. Forest Service-funded hardwood mass timber project with the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison Wisconsin.
Economic impact
If a mass timber construction production plant were established in Michigan, it would have a significant economic impact. There’s the potential for about 90 jobs to be created, says MSU’s Pokharel. He expects that 35 jobs would be created linked directly to the mass-timber facility; 31 new jobs would be indirectly linked to related businesses like sawmills that contract with the facility, and 24 jobs would support local businesses like restaurants and stores, that could see increased patronage.
Such a facility would also help northern Michigan use its vast supply of hardwood timber. Rudnicki estimates that 70 percent of the timber in the U.P. is hardwood.
The forest industry has been receptive to mass timber construction. Forest products companies have helped fund Rudnicki’s research. “The fact that they’re putting cash into it speaks volumes,” he says.
MSU’s Lupien has spoken with many forest industry leaders about mass timber construction. “They have a lot of questions, but they’re generally receptive to the idea,” she says.
The steel industry also seems receptive to mass timber construction, says Rudnicki. The concrete industry, not so much.
Terry Sharik, retired dean of forestry at Michigan Tech, was the founder of the university’s Forest Biomaterials Institute and headed it for several years. He’s pleased that the university has gotten involved in developing mass timber construction.
“This is a way to use fairly low-value wood,” he points out. “You don't have to sacrifice wood that would go into flooring or cabinets.
“We have such a tremendous hardwood resource in the U.P.,” he goes on to say. “We should be using it, and now we can.”
Jennifer Donovan is a reporter with more than 40 years of experience on daily newspapers, magazines and university writing and editing. She is retired as director of news and media relations at Michigan Technological University and lives in Houghton.