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J UNE 2018 | 33 PHOTOGRAPHY BY DSTROYER PHOTOGRAPHY/COURTESY WOOD WORKS! ALBERTA Engineered Wood Products Engineered wood products are taking Canada by storm by LAURIE JONES M ore than just a passing fad, engineered wood products are creating an entirely new way of building for the 21st century. From tower- ing residential buildings to grand halls with 40-foot ceilings; the options are endless. Alberta is seeing a renewed interest in the use of engineered wood products from single family to high-rise. Through Wood WORKS! we have a front row seat to the renaissance of sustainable and cost-effective infrastructure. The recent Prairie Wood Design Awards program included over 30 submis- sions that highlighted exceptional projects like Edmonton's North Glenora Net-Zero Townhouses and church, and the low-rise commercial Ritchie Market. All of these projects included mass timber solutions as a structural element and exposed interior feature. Why are owners and designers choosing engineered wood products? Rory Koska, program director of Wood WORKS! Alberta, says, "Exposed structural wood is not only esthetic, it is often integral for projects to stay on budget and meet construction timelines. The McKenzie Highlands School and Dr. Martha Cohen School in Calgary switched to a mass timber solution to meet the project deadline and financial requirements." A variety of projects are now using wood across the province, including recre- ation centres like the Remington YMCA and Rocky Ridge Recreation Facility, and public spaces like the Edmonton Valley Zoo additions and the pedestrian trestle bridges in Mill Creek Ravine. Alberta is part of a charge leading a revolution in the construction industry. There is a commitment by building owners to create buildings that have less environ- mental impact with an enhanced interior work space. Mass timber wood solutions helped the owners meet both these challenges, as we see in the priMed Mosaic Centre, MEC Brewery District Edmonton, and Malt & Mortar on Whyte Avenue. "Recently the Canadian government issued a call for proposals for 10-storey minimum demonstration projects. There were 14 projects submitted from across the nation and Alberta has three proposals in the competition. We eagerly await the decision to see if Alberta will be building one of the demo projects and creat- ing an example of mass timber construction for the nation," says Koska. StructureCraft Builders Inc. in Abbotsford, B.C., spent one year researching and implementing equipment now used to produce dowel laminated timber (DLT or DowelLam). "DLT has some similarities to the more familiar nail-laminated timber [NLT] that has been used on many past commercial projects," says Gerald Epp Jr., Mass Timber Revolution estimating engineer. "Like NLT, DLT is a one-way spanning panel that is made up from multiple laminations of dimensional lumber fastened together face-to-face," he explains. "However, DLT is manufactured in a fast, mechanized process in which the boards are first milled then compressed together by a machine prior to dowelling. DLT is a highly sustainable, all-wood mass timber product, using hardwood dowels to fasten adjacent boards together. The moisture content differential between the soft- wood lumber and hardwood dowels will equilibrate over time, causing the already tight-fit dowels to expand and create a mechanical bond of enormous strength." Unique to DLT as a mass timber product, a wide variety of profiles can be integrated inexpensively into the bottom surface of the panel. Each finger-jointed board goes through a moulder, allowing a limitless range of different profiles to be explored and exposed in the bottom of a panel, including high-performing acoustic profiles with insulation to absorb sound. Profiles are fully customizable to suit the performance and esthetic requirements of each project. "Structurally, DLT is very efficient for floors and roofs since all the wood fibre runs in the primary span direction," says Epp. "DLT panels can be produced up to 60-feet long and are typically eight-feet wide, although wider panels are available upon request." Recent projects utilizing DLT in B.C. are the Smithers Regional Airport expansion, Aldergrove Pool canopy, and the Surrey Museum expansion. The changes in construction options and styles have also been a part of proj- ects for Western Archrib. "People are looking into solid wood timber, particularly for taller residential buildings," says Andre Lema, business development manager. "With the great press on the Brock Commons building at UBC last year, the spinoff effects have resulted in projects in Alberta that incorporate three- to five-storey buildings." Examples include a five-storey, 144-unit student residence at Red Deer College constructed with solid mass wood timber, and Glenora West Block, a three-storey mass timber construction office building in Edmonton. The Remington YMCA, Calgary, AB.

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