Design
Concept Drawings for La Crosse WI Area Park: This viewing shelter has been modeled using structural round timber at a local park in La Crosse, WI
Client- ORA Trails
Rendering- WholeTrees Structures
Nashville Zoo: Concept renderings renderings for an entry pavilion designed by Brinker Gates Architects, and engineered by WholeTrees Partner, KPFF
Childrens' Museum of Eau Claire: While ground has broken at the site of the new Children's Museum of Eau Claire, teams are working to find the perfect shade of blue to compliment the trusses that will be seen in the structure. Design is all about attention to detail.
Architect: Steinberg Hart
GC: Market&Johnson
Engineer: ERA
Engineer: KPFF
Naytahwaush Health Center: WholeTrees is proud to partner with DSGW Architects to produce an entrance structure and interior atrium installation for the White Earth Nation’s health center in Naytahwaush, MN. These massive Doug Fir trees come from Port Blakely farms in the Pacific Northwest and simply dwarf our production team in comparison.
Architect: DSGW
GC: White Earth Builders
Engineer: Engineering Ventures
Hitchcock Nature Center: The stunning materials ready for install are headed to Omaha, Nebraska after the tricky and delicate game of Tetris was performed by our team in Westby.
Architect: Morton Buildings
Design: Wholetrees Structures
Install
Burkett Farm: WholeTrees is thrilled to oversee installation of the black locust trusses for the Burkett Farm outside Cary, North Carolina. The mission of the farm is to provide a gathering space that provides a learning and educational environment for strengthening local food systems.
Architect: REdesign.build
GC: REdesign.build
Engineer: KPFF Seattle
Living Desert Zoo: Operations VP, Derek Mayhew, recently captured these beautiful images of the structures being installed at the Palm Desert Zoo in California. We hope the Giraffes, Rhinos and all guests enjoy the new additions to the Zoo!
Architect: GLMV Architecture
GC: D.W. Johnston Construction
Engineer: KPFF Seattle
Finish Shots
Iowa Governor's Mansion-:The stunning pool house has been restored to its original glory. Recently captured images of the pool house are absolutely breathtaking. Our thanks to the staff at Terrace Hill for sharing these photographs.
Architect: Terrace Hill Partnership
GC: Terrace Hill Partnership
Engineer: Engineering Ventures
Google Sunnyvale Campus Table: WholeTrees choreographed the site-sourcing and custom milling for this 40' "root ball and timber" table for Google's Sunnyvale Campus.
Lincoln Park Zoo Pepper Wildlife Center: After nearly two years of construction, the Lincoln Park Zoo have opened their new state-of-the-art Pepper Family Wildlife Center. The Pepper Family Wildlife Center has allowed the return of a pride of African lions to Chicago along with providing renovated habitats for two red pandas, two Canada lynx and two snow leopards.
Travel
WholeTrees Board Retreat: Several of the Board of Directors enjoyed a weekend together in La Crosse for strategic conversations, captivating meals and some fun laced into the schedule. They even took a trip to the production facility in Westby to see our works in progress and took a nest for a test drive.
Greenbuild 2021: From different corners of this country, a large team of WholeTrees partners and staff convened in San Diego for the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo. We were met with a smaller than usual crowd at this show, but great connections were made and laughter was shared by all.
Trip to the Desert: During installation of the Living Desert Museum exhibit in Palm Desert, CA this summer, Derek Mayhew had the opportunity to soak up the local beauty of the flora and fauna.
Richard Senior presents to Georgia Firms: This fall, Richard was able to travel to Georgia and explore a little bit in Atlanta and Savannah. Pictured above are some stunning southern Oak trees, canopied and covered in trademark Spanish Moss. It was an informative and fun trip for us!
RES 2021: Richard Senior and Michaela Harms made it to Las Vegas earlier this summer for the Reservation Economic Summit in Las Vegas.
Current Events in the Wood World and WholeTrees in the News
WholeTrees and Port Blakely Announce Initiative: WholeTrees Structures is collaborating with Port Blakely to explore and develop markets for Structural Round Timber (SRT) and Sawn Heavy Timber (SHT) derived from Douglas fir and other species produced by Port Blakely's Pacific Northwest Forestry operations, and, whenever possible, the Winston Creek Certified Carbon Forest.
The initiative is born of both entities’ belief that, as markets realize “Single-Origin” SRT and SHT meet the basic requirements of scaled commercial construction, market differentiators such as true traceability and greater carbon sequestration will lead to increased market share.
Four Projects that show Mass Timber is the Future of American Cities: "As architects face up to the need for ethical, sustainable design in the age of climate change awareness, timber architecture is making a comeback in a new, technologically impressive way. Largely overlooked in the age of Modernism, recent years have seen a plethora of advancements related to mass timber across the world. " Read more here.
LIMB: LIMB reconsiders historic heavy timber construction to develop a new joinery method by focusing on the natural occurrence of branch bifurcation in different wood species. The University of Michigan and Parallel Architects and Builders. See the below video detailing how this project came to be.
WholeTrees 3D Scans used by others: SPEC is a distribution partner, but it's still cool to see our 3D scans used in real time design applications. Check out their Instagram here for an animated 360 view of this rendering.
Platte Fifteen Life Cycle Assessment: Our climate is changing. Human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land, according to the 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) report. 39% of global GHG emissions are attributed to the building industry, 11% of which are embodied carbon emissions. Mass timber sequesters carbon and is an increasingly important product in any strategy to reduce carbon emissions from the built environment. Follow this link to download and read this LCA.
Mass Timber Building in Maine: "Timber erection began last month for the Center for Arctic Studies at Brunswick, Maine-based Bowdoin College despite an exceedingly wet summer, says Matt Tonello project executive at Consigli Construction. “This is the first complete mass timber commercial structure in the state of Maine and also the first commercial structure in Maine to utilize a mass timber lateral system to resist wind and seismic loads,” Tonello says." Read more here.
Greg Cabral of Original Mass Timber Maine connects with Flansburg: After presenting the WholeTrees CEU presentation to this firm, we discovered just how much we loved some of their projects. Check out this project in Hawai'i where a science building dedicated to the study of alternative energy is the first K-12 facility in the world to meet the Living Building Challenge
William Rawn Architects Models after a WholeTrees Presentation: Greg also presented to the wildly talented group over at William Rawn Architects and within a week we're seeing them build models with structural forked trees.