EQUILIBRIUM

This week’s #tbt project highlight features Prince George Airport Expansion and Renovation – Phase I and II – Completed in 2005 in Prince George, BC, Canada. EQUILIBRIUM’s Eric Karsh says, “Structures in airports are often quite expressive and serve as a focus of the architectural design. Although the Prince George Airport is an international airport, the spans are relatively small. While it was tempting at first to develop a more expressive structure, the scale did not warrant this. We instead chose a simple, west coast inspired post-and-beam solution and focused on the quality of the detailing to add a quiet level of refinement to the project. The Prince George Airport was the first major project in North America to use white glue glulam and 5-axis CNC shaping.” The two-phase expansion of the Prince George Airport includes the construction of a domestic departure and arrival lounge, an international arrival lounge complete with customs offices, new security areas, and baggage handling facilities for both domestic and international areas. With its wide-ranging use of local wood species, the airport demonstrates how a high-traffic building can benefit from the resilience, versatility, and thermal characteristics of wood. The airport’s primary structure features unfussy Douglas-fir glue-laminated timber (glulam) post and beam architecture. Architect: McFarlane Green Biggar Architecture + Design now MGA | Michael Green Architecture and office of mcfarlane biggar architects + designers (omb) #glulam #timber #timberengineering #innovativedesign #resilientarchitecture #renovation #airport

EQUILIBRIUM's own Matt Kantner, PE, SE will be speaking at Auburn University's CLT Conference, "The Sustainable Future of CLT in the South: Grow. Design. Build." October 7-9. Let us know if you will be attending! Get more information and register for the conference at the link below: https://lnkd.in/gFz_6jaF

Michigan’s 20.2 million acres of forest cover about half the state and are concentrated in the Upper Peninsula and the northern Lower Peninsula. Nearly 4 million of those acres are DNR-managed state forest lands. The DNR works hand in hand with industry to support and expand it, and is partnering with Michigan State University and Michigan Technological University to promote #masstimberconstruction. The DNR’s new customer service center in the eastern Upper Peninsula is currently under construction using #masstimber materials made from Michigan red pine. See this project and the project team on WIN 🔗 https://lnkd.in/g4r98ZvP ★ Clark Contracting Services ★ EQUILIBRIUM ★ Lord Aeck Sargent ★ OHM Advisors ★ Vaagen Timbers ★ Larry Cowper, PMP ★ Ben Ridderbos, AIA ★ Matt Kantner, PE, SE ARTICLE 🔗: https://lnkd.in/eT89EUr8

This week’s #tbt project highlight features the Trades Training Centre at Northern Lights College – Completed in 2018 in Dawson Creek, BC, Canada. EQUILIBRIUM’s Eric Karsh says, “Equilibrium was engaged for both Phase I and Phase II of this project. It was an interesting one to work on due to a few factors. Dawson’s Creek is very far North and has a short construction window due to harsh winter conditions. To ensure construction was possible in the tight timeframe, we used a combination of mass timber and prefabricated roof panels. The structure included a combination of engineered wood products: glulam, CLT, and Brisco Fine Line. And the project was built on piles and included a crawl space that had to be designed for very heavy loads in the areas of the school that housed the heavy machinery used by the Mechanics program. Located at the start of the Alaska Highway in north-eastern British Columbia, the town’s Northern Lights College is home to three state-of-the-art technical training facilities, including the new 60,000 SF Trades Training Centre that opened in late 2018. This LEED Gold building, heated by biofuel provides a model for sustainable trades college design in a cold climate, utilizing mass timber construction to create a sustainable educational environment. To learn more about this project, visit our website! Photos: Michael Elkan Architect: McFarland Marceau Architects #prefabrication #prefab #timberengineering #masstimber #clt #glulam #engineeredwood

This week’s #tbt project highlight features the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club Dock Building – Completed in 2019 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. EQUILIBRIUM’s Graeme Hyslop says, “Even though the dock building appears simple and non-imposing, it has a strikingly beautiful form and fits perfectly with west coast modern style. It is functional but also manages to stand out without being disruptive to its context.” The project’s practical working needs, very modest budget, and prominent setting required a simple solution. The combination of engineered wood and light wood frame was chosen as the primary structural system for its local availability, ease of construction and economy. The interior is predominantly construction-grade plywood, providing a tough, easily replaceable interior finish. The Dock Building shows that an elegant, yet practical building can be achieved through careful planning and a creative team, regardless of budget. The superstructure consists of glulam posts and beams with light timber infill decking and walls. To learn more about this project, visit our website! Photos: Ema Peter Architect: MGA | Michael Green Architecture #glulam #lightframe #engineering #masstimber #timberengineering #timberconstruction #elegantdesign #coastalarchitecture

This week’s #tbt project highlight is the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre – Completed in 2008 in Whistler Blackcomb, BC, Canada. EQUILIBRIUM’s Christopher Leong, our summer intern says, “What I love most about the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre is the modern mass timber in the main structure in juxtaposition to the more traditional cedar log construction in the pit house. The arched glulam chords on the inside of the glass façade also provide a unique visual in the bright and spacious main hall area – a striking feature that breaks up the regularity of the glulam columns.” EQUILIBRIUM is proud to have completed over 100 First Nation community projects across Canada stretching from 1998 to present day. The Squamish Lil’Wat Cultural Centre is a landmark project in our company history. It is a three-storey, 38,000 SF multipurpose First Nation cultural centre. Representing coastal as well as interior native interests, the architecture incorporates modern expressions of the Coast Salish Longhouse as well as the interior “Istken”. Photos: Katherine McIntyre, Gary Fiegehen, Michael Bednar Architect: Alfred Waugh. - now Formline Architecture #indigenousdesign #indigenousarchitecture #bcfirstnations #squamishlilwatculturalcentre #squamishnation #lilwatnation #coastalarchitecture #masstimber #masstimberconstruction

Thank you Perkins&Will for organizing this wonderful event!

"A strikingly angular five-story office building… faced a monumental challenge helping bring down the sizeable footprint of a tech giant while also setting new standards in the architecture industry — for biophilic and structural design, construction techniques, material sourcing and carbon reduction." MGA | Michael Green Architecture SERA Architects XL Construction ASPECT Structural Engineers Elevated Construction Services, LLC Kinsol Timber Systems Mercer Mass Timber Rothoblaas https://lnkd.in/g7HZhQ35

The distinguished structural engineer Eric Karsh visited NYC a couple of days ago and participated in a lecture about Mass-Timber construction in high-rise projects. It was organized by Carol Willis, President and Director of The Skyscraper Museum, and hosted at Thornton Tomasetti's NYC office. Eric and his team at EQUILIBRIUM are working with me, Sebastian Goldberg and our team at Rafael Viñoly Architects on the predominantly Mass-Timber structure of MÉDANO, our new development in Montevideo, which is one of the most sustainable projects in the world. Although MÉDANO is a "Landscraper" not a "Skyscraper", the insights shared by Eric, Alejandro Fernandez Alvarez De Buergo, Benton Johnson and moderator Daniel Safarik of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) justified my enthusiasm for the construction system and drove home the vast potential and promise of a building technology that is at once ancient and cutting edge. https://lnkd.in/df884Egk

This week’s #tbt project highlight is the Advanced Wood Products Laboratory at College of Forestry at Oregon State University – Completed in 2020 in Corvallis, OR, USA. EQUILIBRIUM’s Omer Ali Mohammed, M.S., P.Eng., P.E. says, “It was my privilege to serve as the Engineer of Record for the OSU Advanced Wood Products Laboratory Building. It’s a space used to do state-of-the-art testing for wood products. Although it’s an industrial facility, it’s very beautiful to look at and a very unique project structurally. The AWP is a single storey building but built to the height of what would normally be a 4 storey structure. The building is also the first to use Mass Plywood Panels (MPP) as shear walls. I am proud to have worked on such a groundbreaking project.” Reimagining the familiar pre-engineered steel shed, the 20,000 SF Advanced Wood Products Laboratory uses exposed timber in an industrial setting, which has proven to be both practical and uniquely pleasing for occupants. Lateral resistance is provided by steel rod bracing and Mass Plywood Panels (MPP) shear walls, a first time use in North America. To learn more about this project, visit our website! Photos: Ema Peter Architect: MGA | Michael Green Architecture Oregon State University Andersen Construction TallWood Design Institute Affiliated Engineers, Inc. StructureCraft Accoya North America AEP SPAN Weyerhaeuser KPFF Consulting Engineers BRC Acoustics and Technology Consulting Rodeca GmbH #industrialarchitecture #biliophile #mpp #innovativedesign #innovativeengineering #innovativearchitecture #structuralengineering #groundbreaking