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Mass timber building and facility tours are a highlight of the International Mass Timber Conference, with a line-up of outstanding buildings, mass timber manufacturing and plenty of networking with global professionals. On March 26th, the Portland Buildings Tour #1 kicks off with a visit to the Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth in Vancouver, Washington.

Join Mithun’s JoAnn Wilcox, Seamus Kelly and Chip Hammer, along with design-build team leader Skanska and structural engineer PCS Structural Solutions, for a hardhat tour of the Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth, currently under construction. The project includes a new 35,000 sf Divine Academic Hall (with administration, project-based learning embedded classrooms for grades K-12, and a library media center), 15,000 sf Hunter Gymnasium, outdoor fields, playground and parking areas.

Divine Academic Hall incorporates glue-laminated wood for columns and beams, as well as three-ply cross-laminated (CLT) timber for the roof structure and floors, informed by Mithun’s Building Better Schools R+D study. The system is cost competitive with more traditional building systems, and results in a ratio of less than .50 cubic feet of wood fiber per gross square foot of building area (which is below industry standard). It incorporates biophilic benefits to student well-being and learning outcomes, and makes the most of acoustic vibrations to extend occupants’ sensory reach (Deaf people “read” the activities in their surroundings that may not be immediately apparent to many hearing people through an acute sensitivity of visual and tactile cues).

Additional stops along this tour route include the Timberlab Fabrication Facility and Holgate Library. Learn more and register via the Mass Timber Conference tour page: https://masstimberconference.com/agenda/tours/

Date Posted: 03.26.2024