Mass Timber Construction
We are experienced builders on a bold mission: to innovate, produce, and deliver mass timber solutions like no other - transforming the built environment and changing the planet's future.
We're driven to test new ideas and reach new heights through transparency, collaboration, and creativity. Breaking boundaries and pushing forward with inspired motivation. We see projects through the eyes of the builder. When they say “it won't work" or “this hasn't been done before," we show them how—eliminating speculation and mitigating risk.
Timberlab was born out of and is a subsidiary of Swinerton, a company known for excellence and innovation for over 135 years. As the first mass timber buildings were being built in the Pacific Northwest, Swinerton's Portland office recognized the opportunity to reduce their impact on the natural environment, deliver projects with improved quality and safety outcomes, support rural economies, and create beautiful spaces by bringing the outside in. Some of the earliest projects in the region, including First Tech Federal Community Credit Union, Wingspan Event Center, and Beaverton Public Safety Building emerged as a part of this team that would later become Timberlab.
Timberlab was launched as a separate business entity with a mission to advance the mainstream adoption of mass timber. As a team of architects, engineers, and builders, we see every project from multiple vantage points providing solutions that result in the highest value for the owner and occupant and offer services to support your team throughout the project life cycle. We're driven to test new ideas and reach new heights through transparency, collaboration, and creativity – breaking boundaries and pushing forward with inspired motivation.
In 2020, our team opened its first location in Portland, Oregon, where it produces timber annually to build an estimated 800,000 sq. ft. of fabricated glulam components for projects throughout the United States. This facility helped support the Pacific Northwest as a regional powerhouse for mass timber construction by providing value-add fabrication services for glulam production. The intention was to expand the supply chain and, thereby, reduce the cost of mass timber structures, ultimately promoting the deployment of timber across many applications.
In 2023, Timberlab launched its second fabrication facility in Greenville, SC to assist the growing market along the East Coast. Timberlab uses its facilities to create custom mass timber mock-ups and conduct industry innovation to advance our mission and vision for mainstream adoption of mass timber construction. Between both facilities, Timberlab is able to serve the entire domestic U.S. market with premium engineering wood products through sophisticated CNC machine programming.
Custom Mass Timber Fabrication
Our custom mass timber fabrication team brings the architect's vision to life by transforming commodity products into custom building components that are easily assembled on-site. Our CNC machines are customized to process the member sizes needed for long-span office buildings and tall timber buildings. To meet the growing needs of the industry and to alleviate pinch points in supply, Timberlab is expanding its production capacity to reach the needs of every U.S. domestic market.
Timber Fabrication Process
From design through installation, Timberlab's integrated team approach to project delivery elevates quality; engineers understand the cost, detailers understand constructability, and superintendents understand how timber integrates into the overall construction. Direct control and visibility of the shop floor allow for acceleration and deceleration of production to align with on-site conditions. Under close supervision, Timberlab harnesses the opportunity to control the quality of the fabrication process every step of the way - from detailing to finishing
Assembly technicians bring timber erection experience to the shop floor, while detailers are steps away to assist in coordinating design intent from contract drawings and fabrication tolerances; success for all.
Timberlab's Fabrication Services
As the design evolves, our team ensures that details are efficient to machine and constructible on-site. When you hire Timberlab as your timber fabricator, your project benefits from the following:
Cutting-edge CNC Capabilities
Intricate Hardware Installation
Research & Development
Quality Control
Productivity Tracking
Technical Mockups
Premium Engineered Wood Products
Glued-Laminated Timber (Glulam)
Columns:
Glulam columns, either square or rectangular in cross-section, are subjected to stresses primarily in axial tension or compression and are most effectively manufactured with lumber of uniform grade. While we can produce glulam with many different grades of lumber, higher-strength lumber intended to reduce the cross-sectional dimensions of the member will have a higher cost and may be subject to longer lead times to gather wood of this grade.
Unbalanced Beams
Unbalanced beams are intended for use in simple-span applications loaded in positive bending, producing the greatest tension stress on the bottom of the beam. To resist such stresses, unbalanced beams are manufactured with the highest-strength laminations on the bottom of the member. Importantly, the asymmetry of unbalanced beams results in a significantly reduced bending capacity if installed upside down—the top side of the beam is indicated with a stamp.
Balanced Beams
Balanced beams are intended for use in multi-span or cantilevered applications. As either the top or bottom of the member are stressed in tension due to applied loads, balanced beams are manufactured with high-strength tension laminations on both the top and bottom.
Standard depths are in multiples of the standard lamination thickness:
Douglas Fir: 1-1/2 inches
Alaskan Cedar: 1-1/2 inches
Southern Pine: 1-3/8 inches
Glulam depths can be a minimum of (2) laminations, although our standard depths start at a minimum of (4) laminations. Our maximum standard glulam depth is 72 inches. Please contact us for information about producing glulam up to a maximum depth of 118 inches.
Timberlab produces glulam in standard cross-section sizes. These sizes conform to standard sizes in the NDS up to 16 inches nominal width using either single or multiple-piece laminations (split laminations). The split lamination widths are based on the total laminating lumber widths in a layer minus an allowance to account for planning each side face after pressing to the finished width.
Timberlab can manufacture glulam up to 30 inches wide.
Timberlab Projects in Fabrication
The Sunnydale Community Center will provide civic and recreational amenities inspired by nature for a community that has long-awaited such facilities. The project is intended to serve as the heart and soul of the HOPE neighborhood in San Francisco, elevating the livelihood of the culturally diverse, mixed-income population that resides there. The Sunnydale Community Center was the recipient of a California Mass Timber Building Competition grant and features cross-laminated timber (CLT) floors and roof structure supported by Glulam columns and beams and a steel brace frame lateral system.
Live Oak Bank Building 4, will accommodate 400 employees in a four-story, 64,000 SF addition to its rapidly growing corporate campus. The structure will be the first to use cross-laminated timber as a market differentiator while also meeting its sustainability mission and vision. Aside from the steel envelope, the vast majority of Building 4 utilizes a mass timber structural system. The exterior materials of the project will follow the precedent set by the campus, with a combination of cypress siding, metal panels, and curtain walls to add transparency to the building and views.
Timberlab will fabricate the glulam timber and cross-laminated timber (CLT) components in its newly opened Greenville, South Carolina fabrication facility utilizing the region's Southern Yellow Pine (SYP) species. Additionally, Timberlab provided timber engineering and design for the exposed wood-to-wood connection. The new Live Oak Bank building will provide tenants with beautiful, exposed timber interiors in addition to its exterior surrounded by trees - creating a bounty of biophilic connectivity. The building is designed to achieve LEED Silver certification.
This 275,000 square foot mixed-use project spans five stories, with 158,000 square feet of mass timber office and lab-ready space, over a concrete podium parking garage and warehouse for Dunn Lumber. The project will be located on the Northeast side of Lake Union, with access to the Cheshiahud Lake Union Loop. Weber Thompson's design of Northlake Commons "draws inspiration from the experience of being deep within the woods of the Pacific Northwest."
The high-performance lab-ready office building pays homage to the timber roots of the Dunn family business located on this street from 1931 to today. The structural system is comprised of CLT panels atop glulam columns and girders, with a steel Buckling-Restrained Braced Frame lateral system.
The mass timber structural system will have a lighter footprint than other structural alternatives; a Life Cycle Assessment of the embodied carbon in the timber will be calculated to understand the impact compared to more conventional construction types. The project is pursuing LEED CS Gold and Fitwel Certification.