Iowa Governor's Mansion: The pool house at the Iowa Governor's Mansion is being restored to its former glory.  This photo from 1937 shows the original round timber pergola and pool.  WholeTrees is excited to be part of the restoration process and will be providing all of the black locust timbers to reconstruct this beautiful outdoor space.  Precise measurements were taken of the existing original stone structure and 3D renderings of the new pergola were created from those field measurements.  The pool has been meticulously restored so the final touches are all that remain. New mass timber beams, rafters, and purlins will complete the restoration when they are installed this fall.  We love connecting to this space's past and becoming part of its future for generations to come.

GC:  Terrace Hill Partnership
Engineer: Engineering Ventures

MHA Interpretive Center: The assembly and production of the Earth Lodge for the MHA Nation's Interpretive Center is underway. This massive pre engineered round wood tree structure will be a focal point and statement as you enter the building.

Architect: DSGW Architects
GC: Woodstone Inc.
Engineer: Engineering Ventures

AVA Hollywood: This sculptural beauty tree will be a focal point in the entrance of an apartment building in Los Angeles. A swiveling steel base will elevate the branches and the entire tree will be lit from below. What a dynamic statement and interesting use of natural materials. We love this biophilic design.

Architect: GroundLevel Landscape Architecture
GC: Gothic Landscape Construction

National Gateway:  Our crew was in Arlington, Virginia installing these 14 beautiful sculptural trees in the outdoor covered courtyard of National Gateway Potomac Yard. The COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges and delays but our amazing crew has adapted with positivity and perseverance. Thank you to our team members who remain strong, willing, and always capable.

Architect: Landworks-Studio
GC: Paradigm Contractors

La Crosse Riverside Park Bandshell: The polished copper roof crowns and completes this brilliant bandshell on the banks of the Mississippi. Once programming resumes, stop by for a concert. Or come by some afternoon to enjoy the shade and the breeze off the river.
*Photo Credit: Elevate Media Group

Architect: Roald Gundersen Design
Engineer: SCL Consulting Engineers

Lake Olathe Park: A callback to summer 2019 when we complete this awesome nature playground for Lake Olathe Park, in Olathe, Kansas. The playground was constructed using primarily on-site materials. Rock was sourced from the site during construction and the wood used for the balance logs, the climbing tree, the water tables, and the fort-building platforms were carefully selected from chinquapin oak, post oak, and pin oak trees that had to be removed in other areas of the park due to construction of roads and buildings.

The nature playground provides opportunities for free and unstructured play outdoors, which encourages creativity, boosts confidence, and builds cognitive skills. Nature based play can help boost children’s mental and physical health, increase cooperation, and decrease ADHD, anxiety and depression.
*Photo Credit: Olathe Parks
 

Redshift by Autodesk Video: If you have not seen it already, take 6 minutes to learn the story of site-sourced trees repurposed as pre engineered structural round timber columns for Lakeridge Middle School in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

LF20 Online Session + Summit Series: On Thursday June 11 at 2:00 pm Pacific, join WholeTrees, Autodesk, Skanska USA Building, and Mahlum Architects as we discuss the process, challenges, and tools that enabled the use of site-sourced trees as structural wood columns for Lakeridge Middle School in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The panel will discuss how this project serves as a model for local sourcing and how 3D scanning and modeling, the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3), and other modern technologies enable biophilic design and sustainable construction.

Structure Magazine "The Future of Structural Round Timber": As Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) decision-makers continue to explore new applications for mass timber products. Forest product innovators are applying decades of existing research toward the scaled commer- cialization of structural round timber (SRT). The authors of this article predict that rising demand for mass timber products is an enormous opportunity for accelerating the use of SRT columns, spanning members, and trusses.