The building and construction technology (BCT) program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has built a reputation on its research of innovative wood-construction technologies. So when the school announced a plan to bring under one roof all its design disciplines—BCT, architecture, and landscape architecture and regional planning—the faculty seized the opportunity to put its academic work into practice. The result is the recently completed 87,500-square-foot Design Building. Created by Boston-based Leers Weinzapfel Associates (LWA), the structure is not only the first academic facility to be made of engineered cross-laminated timber (CLT), an environmentally friendly super- plywood developed as an alternative to stone, masonry, concrete, and steel. It also is the first building in the United States to use a composite flooring system made of cast-in-place concrete and CLT.
“Many people think of wood as just an old material,” says BCT program director Alex Schreyer. “Our group wanted to show how we could work with it in contemporary terms.” To that end, LWA demonstrated CLT’s ability to handle horizontal and vertical loads by utilizing the material for the building’s exposed glulam frame as well as on the various shaft walls for the stairs, elevator tower, and mechanical systems. In the two-story atrium, where exposed CLT panels span up to 65 feet in an open common area, the architects pushed the material further: They collaborated with engineering firm Equilibrium Consulting on an innovative “zipper” truss system of glulam beams and steel rods that would support the CLT-concrete composite floor above and the weight of the building’s green roof.
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