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The Children’s Museum of Eau Claire in west-central Wisconsin is the first-of-its-kind, the only building on the planet constructed as a 2-story Structural Round Timber (SRT) project. The project won the 2023 Structure of the Year award from Structure Magazine and was orchestrated by the innovative Wisconsin-based, WholeTrees® Structures, a company that combines custom architecture and construction with modern material science research to create durable and affordable wood-based structural systems.
Image Credit: WholeTrees®
The Eau Claire Museum project was a collaborative effort between WholeTrees® and the architectural firm, Holzman Moss Bolttino | Steinberg Hart, and engineering firms, KPFF Consulting Engineers & ERA Structural Engineering. The project also incorporated donated sugar maple from Maine, along with ash and some Douglas fir, showcasing a variety of timber species and their versatility in construction.
Wood-forward projects like this, which incorporate cross-disciplinary collaboration from fields such as forestry, engineering, architecture, and culture, are pushing the boundaries of modern design while contributing to the global effort to decarbonize the built environment. Throughout history, architecture has always reflected the creativity and resources of its time— from the reverberating power of ancient Roman structures to iconic steel marvels like the Eiffel Tower, and the sacred wooden temples of Norway and Japan. Wood, in particular, has played a central role in shaping civilizations, leaving an imprint on cultures and inspiring future generations.
In the earliest surviving examples of wooden decorative art, dating to the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th centuries, natural wood colors were used for geometric inlays, pictorial intarsia, veneer, furniture, and architectural paneling. Crown-cut, exotic woods, and other precious non-wood materials, as well as artificially stained veneers, would be introduced later (Robinson et al., 2016). The evolution of architectural materials— from adobe and clay to wood, concrete, iron, and steel— has had an enormous impact on the success of communities and nations. Today, architects are rediscovering wood as a versatile, sustainable building material, utilizing its age-old properties in new and innovative ways to meet modern design challenges while addressing environmental concerns.
WholeTrees® Structural Products are innovating with wood through structural round timber (SRT) and Sawn Heavy Timber (SHT). SRT is the use of trees in their natural form, un-milled timber, that can be used as columns, beams, or other engineered assemblies. Most architects are now familiar with mass timber or cross-laminated timber (CLT), an engineered wood product made by gluing smaller pieces of timber together. This process uses lower-value and smaller timber to create wooden beams that can replace much of the steel and even concrete used in construction. SRT is another way to utilize young and small hardwood trees that may otherwise not be used as standard lumber. Both SRT and SHT contribute to the decarbonization of the built environment by sequestering the atmospheric carbon absorbed during photosynthesis.
WholeTrees® has not only been successful in bringing innovative wood products to the market and fostering forest stewardship through sustainable sourcing, but they also have outlined a blueprint for wood-forward architects to follow and engage with. “Most architects want to build with wood; they want to play with timber in new and creative ways,” said WholeTrees® CEO Amelia Baxter, “How can we equip them to do that?” Baxter went on to explain that architects juggle client needs and often lack tools to dispel common misconceptions about selecting wood over other building materials.
WholeTrees® develops resources for architects to communicate with clients and has proprietary and sophisticated structural analysis technology to help the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) community build with more wood. For example, they provide 3D models as key data points that support the collaborating architects and engineers and help clients better visualize the end project.
The forest products industry and the AEC community have different priorities and needs; WholeTrees® specializes in bridging the gap-coordinating foresters, engineers, and fabricators to execute stylistic design projects. When asked how WholeTrees® has succeeded in communicating to architects all of the benefits of wood in architecture and established such a robust portfolio of projects, Baxter said, “The company has dedicated staff time to train employees on working in the architecture sector; the business development team focuses its efforts on the architecture firms that care about designing for environmental and economic efficiency.” It also helps that an architect co-founded the company, employs architects on staff, and has gained a deep understanding of the many factors influencing architectural design choices while training its team to work closely with and communicate effectively with architects.
Image Credit: WholeTrees®
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