That is according to HOK, the global architecture and engineering firm leading the design for the three-storey, 57,000-square-foot building and an adjacent 350-bed forensic psychiatric hospital, both under construction on a campus being redeveloped as a centre of excellence for behavioural healthcare.

The administration building combines regionally sourced glulam columns and beams with cross-laminated timber decking — a structural approach rarely attempted in healthcare construction, where steel and concrete have long been the default.

Working alongside structural engineer KPFF Consulting Engineers to develop concealed proprietary connections and fasteners, HOK kept the exposed timber interior free of visible hardware…with several columns made from trees felled on-site.

Wood Central understands that the building is targeting LEED Gold certification and net-zero-energy readiness. Rooftop and site-mounted photovoltaic panels will generate on-site renewable energy, while advanced mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems — including thermal storage — are designed to reduce peak energy loads. Fritted-glass curtainwalls bring daylight into the building’s core and offer occupants views across the surrounding campus.

The ground floor includes training and gathering spaces open to the wider community — a conscious step away from the closed, institutional character that has defined state psychiatric facilities for generations. It comes as the broader $947 million Western State redevelopment — the largest capital project in Washington state history — pushes toward a 2028 opening. The forensic hospital is scheduled to begin receiving patients later that year.

That is according to Pulse Tasmania, which reports the rig is designed to replicate the planned venue’s fixed-roof structure and will assess whether a treated version of the stadium’s ETFE roof material can eliminate the shadow problem that has dogged the project since early 2025.

Shadows have plagued the design from the beginning.

Last year, Wood Central reported that Cricket Australia and Cricket Tasmania wrote to the Tasmanian government demanding architects redesign or remove the roof entirely, saying the fixed-dome design made the venue “unlikely to be conducive to hosting Test matches” — and potentially unworkable for one-day and T20 fixtures too.

At the time, Anne Beach, the CEO of the Macquarie Point Development Corporation, told a parliamentary inquiry that the transparent covering created contrast on clear days — and that the timber and steel beams, engineered as small as possible, would still cast shadows.

However, in November, a Gold Coast company identified a potential fix: Cricket Tasmania CEO Dom Baker proposed a matte treatment that, when applied to one side of the ETFE material, would disperse light rather than pass straight through —  killing the sharp contrasts on the pitch.

Until this week, it had never been physically tested. Now, the rig will run assessments on shadow intensity, ball visibility, and playing conditions. It will also capture data on how roof treatments affect turf growth beneath — a secondary concern for groundskeepers at an indoor venue.

It comes after both houses of the Tasmanian Parliament approved the $1.13 billion project in December — the Upper House voting 9–5 after two days of debate. The 23,000-seat venue will be the permanent home of the Tasmania Devils AFL team. Its fixed dome, framed in Tasmanian-sourced glulam, would be the largest timber roof on any stadium in the world.

What the roof actually looks like

Late last year, Wood Central reported that the current design documents detail a hybrid timber roof lined with Tasmanian-sourced glulam, paired with metal deck cladding, steel rod bracing, and translucent ETFE pillows. The clearspan structure carries an internal clearance of 49 metres — enough headroom for Test-level cricket as well as AFL, soccer, and rugby.

The Macquarie Point Summary Report specifies lightweight ETFE pillows, a 20-millimetre timber laminate, a secondary glulam system, and Aramax metal deck cladding, all supported by steel rod bracing. The timber form is designed to reduce perceived bulk from street level and preserve harbour sightlines — a tough ask for a structure sitting on the edge of Hobart’s CBD.

Automated Architecture, or AUAR, makes portable micro-factories that produce the full wooden framing of a house — walls, floors and roofs — in 24 hours. Co-founder Mollie Claypool told CNN the system produces timber panels more quickly, more cheaply, and more precisely than a conventional framing crew, freeing carpenters to focus on construction rather than component manufacturing.

It’s a claim the building and construction supply chain wants to stress-test — but the underlying model is sound.

Architects send building plans to AUAR’s AI-powered software, the Master Builder, which calculates how many panels are needed and exactly how much timber a developer needs to purchase.

The micro-factory — which fits inside a standard shipping container — is dispatched directly to the building site with an operator, who uses a robotic arm to measure, cut, and nail timber into panels, leaving precise openings for windows, doors, wiring, and plumbing. Contractors fit the panels by hand.

One micro-factory, Claypool says, can produce the framing for a typical house in about a day — a process she says would take a conventional timber-framing crew four weeks. On cost, AUAR claims its service runs 30% cheaper than a standard framing crew and up to 15% cheaper than ordering prefabricated panels from a large off-site factory and transporting them to the site.

The system can build parts for buildings up to seven storeys high.

AUAR can also respond to timber’s natural variations. It accounts for knots, bends, and warps — calculating the most efficient cutting pattern from available stock to reduce waste. “The precision of the finished panels produces a tighter building envelope,” Claypool adds, “lowering heat loss and improving the energy efficiency of the finished home.”

AUAR currently operates three micro-factories across the US and EU, with five more scheduled for delivery this year. So far, it has raised £7.7 million, with 600,000 square metres of panels in production — enough to build hundreds of homes. But Claypool’s ambition is to grow that to 1,000 micro-factories on sites by 2030, producing 200,000 homes every year.

Wood Central understands the company is in active discussions with several new US partners as part of what it describes as a growth phase, following its 2024 partnership with construction investment firm Rival Holdings. That makes sense, given 94 per cent of single-family homes built in 2024 were timber-framed, and Goldman Sachs has identified the country’s housing shortfall — estimated at between 1.5 and 5.5 million homes — as the root of its affordability crisis.

None of this is happening in a vacuum. As Wood Central reported in December, Europe’s most advanced robotic prefab plants are already showing what zero-labour panel production looks like at scale — floor and wall assemblies delivered flat-pack to site with, as Timber Development Association CEO Andrew Dunn put it after touring those facilities, “not a single Allen key in sight.”

The question is whether those models can be adapted to local conditions, supply chains and building standards — and how quickly.

That urgency is reflected in where research dollars are flowing. Australian Forest & Wood Innovations (AFWI) — a $200 million research and development fund backed by $100 million in federal funding by the Australian government — has already committed to projects targeting exactly this gap, including the Automated Design for Prefabrication in Timber Construction and The Precinct, a large-scale centre to process wood fibre into frames, trusses, wall panels and flooring at manufacturing scale.

Back in the UK, David Philp — chair of the Chartered Institute of Building’s digital and innovation advisory panel, and not involved with AUAR — told CNN the window for treating this technology as optional had closed.

“These innovations were an opportunity a few years ago, but now they’re a necessity. They’re not a nice-to-have anymore — they’re key to any construction business model.”

But the remaining barriers are not technical, he said. It’s cultural — particularly in England, where just 9% of homes built in 2019 were timber-framed, compared to 92% in Scotland. “The technology and standards are there — the real barrier is culture. We’ve got deeply ingrained traditional ways of working, so the challenge now is people and change, not tools and processes.”

AUAR is not alone. London-based Facit Technologies produces on-site micro-factories for wooden components, while US-based Cuby Technologies uses modular production units that combine to handle various construction elements. What distinguishes AUAR’s portable, container-delivered model is its flexibility — particularly relevant for regional and remote sites where logistics costs make centralised prefabrication plants impractical.

As for the broader picture, Claypool isn’t shy about what’s at stake. “Good homes are not just a construction problem,” she told CNN. “It’s a social problem. When homes are scarce, and we’re slow to build them, everything else suffers.”

• To learn why the UK’s largest contractors are looking to modern methods of construction – like prefabrication using mass timber parts – to meet the country’s target of 300,000 new dwellings each year, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from August 2025.

Slated to open later this year, the $1.45 billion, 39-storey ‘plyscraper’ will eventually contain more than 30,000 cubic metres of timber — shipped by European giants Stora Enso and Wiehag — across 21 storeys of the tower, with seven four-storey’ timber habitats’ sandwiched between steel-and-concrete mega floor plates above a seven-storey concrete podium.

And the glass panels going up are anything but conventional.

Spanish BIPV manufacturer Onyx Solar — working through Australian building products supplier Metz — is installing 1,794 crystalline silicon solar louvres across the tower’s active facade as part of a bespoke 247 kWp system. Speaking to PV Magazine Australia earlier this month, Onyx Solar revealed that each unit carries 28 mono-crystalline cells in a 4+4 mm glass configuration and produces 138 Wp at peak output. “The louvres also form a self-shading system that cuts direct solar heat gain internally,” Onya Solar said, turning the tower’s skin into a “vertical power source.”

Designed by BVN and New York-based SHoP, each ‘habitat’ comprises four floors of timbered space stacked inside a steel exoskeleton, eliminating the need for internal columns. “The timber floors are connected to the concrete floors via drag straps,” said Tim Allen, timber structural lead for TTW, who spoke at Timber Construct — Australia’s only timber construction conference — in late 2024. “Why build a 39-storey building partly out of timber?” Allen said. “Because it comes down to using the right timber for the right application.”

Whilst in October last year, Peter Morley, the Dexus project director overseeing the build, said the team had “broken the back on the most technical, structural phase of the project,” with the hybrid timber approach allowing the developers “to bring the building up quicker and get the façade on quicker than a more traditional build.”

“That’s because we’re jumping up five levels every time, and while we’re going up, we’re coming back and infilling with the timber within each of those five-storey zones,” Morley said. Atlassian Central is co-owned by Dexus and Atlassian, with Built and Japanese construction giant Obayashi appointed as builders, confirming the building remains “on schedule” for a 2026 opening, with the tech giant expected to take over five of the seven habitats in late 2028 following a full fit-out.

At street level, crews are also well advanced on a new pedestrian connection from Railway Colonnade Drive to the Devonshire Street Tunnel entrance — the heritage passage running beneath Central Station between Lee Street and Devonshire Street — which will, for the first time, allow pedestrians to access the tunnel directly from the colonnade as part of Central’s broader Third Square redevelopment.

“Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do apart from deal with asbestos when you find it to ensure that you’re providing a safe workplace and a safe building going forward,” according to Victorian Treasurer Jaclyn Symes, who spoke to ABC Melbourne Radio, who confirmed that the bill sits with the government and not the Australian Grand Prix Corporation under its contract with F1 rights holder Liberty Media.

Last month, Wood Central reported that the new building will include a striking timber waffle roof design — joining a growing roster of F1 facilities swapping steel and concrete for hybrid cross-laminated timber systems. Renders produced by Woods Bagot show a massive roof that will eventually shelter 14 F1 team garages.

“What excites us most about this design is how it elevates both elite motorsport and grassroots community sport under one roof,” said Woods Bagot Director Bruno Mendes, the project’s design lead. “We’ve engineered a facility that doesn’t just host one of the world’s premier racing events — it actively gives back to the local sporting community every day of the year.”

Inside the canopy, race control suites, media workrooms and administration offices sit alongside the garages, with expansive hospitality terraces framed by CLT beams and full-height glazing offering circuit and lake views for 5,000 Paddock Club guests. When Grand Prix teams pack up each year, the complex converts into a community sporting hub with seven indoor courts and clubrooms for local football, netball and basketball clubs.

Delivered by a consortium of AECOM, Icon and Woods Bagot, the redevelopment draws on the same team behind the award-winning T3 Collingwood — Melbourne’s tallest hybrid timber office building, also built by Icon.

Drawing record attendance, the Treasurer was happy to spruik the benefits of hosting the race: “I can point to the fact that the Grand Prix is a major economic contributor to the state and I know that many people are going to get along to that race this weekend,” she said. “It fills beds in hotels and people going out for dinner, and it keeps everyone busy, and it supports thousands of jobs.”

As for the existing building, constructed in 1995, Wood Central understands that full demolition is slated to begin days after Sunday’s race, with the new facility scheduled for completion ahead of the 2028 Grand Prix.

• To learn more about Melbourne’s Formula 1 Pit Lane building, one of Australia’s largest timber projects in development, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from last month.

Now, Australian Sustainable Hardwoods (ASH) — the country’s largest hardwood processor — says a $600,000 AFWI-funded research project is helping the industry find its way forward, with new species, new engineered products and new performance data that could change how timber windows are specified in Australia.

Daniel Wright, ASH’s National Business Development Manager, told Wood Central that window manufacturers are a big part of the company’s supply chain — from commodity and painted windows through to high-end architectural manufacturers — mostly across south-eastern states, but with a growing presence in northern New South Wales.

And Wright said the fallout from the decision to cease harvesting in Victorian forests has been immediate. “The window manufacturers of south-east Australia have been forced into a lot of change with the cessation of native timber in Victoria — just like we have,” he said. “But they also have upcoming changes to the NCC, which will structurally change how many of them operate.”

“Of course, what impacts our supply chain also impacts us.”

That disruption created confusion. “We’ve recently seen imported plantation timbers in the window market that don’t meet the specs they are intended for,” Wright said. “This was a direct result of Victoria’s hardwood being suddenly ceased. The window makers were trying to do the right thing, but were forced to make quick decisions.”

As one of the major stakeholders in the AFWI–AGWA Modernising Timber Windows project, led jointly by the Timber Development Association and the Australian Glass and Window Association, Australian Sustainable Hardwoods is providing timber species for testing their performance in modern systems.

“When we were asked to be involved, we saw this project as an opportunity to work together and help the window makers collectively find pathways forward that not only suit their specific needs, but also comply with upcoming changes to the NCC,” Wright said.

The project is also a chance for ASH to advance one of its newer species — Plantation Oak — as the company rebuilds markets lost when Victorian ash was taken away. Made from Shining Gum logs grown in a plantation for pulp, Plantation Oak is upgraded by ASH into higher-end, longer-term applications. Wright said a small part of every log can be used for architectural applications, but the majority needs to be engineered to get the best out of it.

“We’ve had success with Plantation Oak in MASSLAM, but in order to use this fibre in other market segments, we need to help build the standards and examples that everyone can follow with confidence,” he said. ASH is one of 10 timber suppliers involved in the project, alongside the Pentarch Group and others.

Now, the testing programme is about to shift up a gear.

Speaking to Wood Central today, Kylan Low — the Structural Engineer at the Timber Development Association leading the project — said next week’s round will put four configurations through their paces: a double-hung window, an awning and casement window, an awning and double casement window, and a centre bifold door. Low said the configurations are designed to capture various hardware setups used across the industry and will be tested under combined air and water pressure for durations representing storm periods.

In January, Low told Wood Central that the industry had been craving this kind of data for a very long time: “Window data hasn’t kept up with changes in codes, glazing, and timber supply.”

The project has also given a platform to the next generation. Jesse Ross — a Graduate Engineer at AGWA who has been working alongside Low since the project’s inception — recently shared his reflections on what has become his first major engineering project. Ross said that, unlike uPVC and aluminium systems, there was no prime operator in the timber window sector, meaning the entire system had to be built from the ground up.

Early testing revealed that some Australian hardwoods, such as Spotted Gum and Blackbutt, could outperform European staples. But given the project’s focus on species substitution, the team chose to work with the lowest passing species it could find. Designs have settled on 55/58 mm sash profiles with 24 mm glazing pockets, accommodating modern insulated glass units and manufacturable by small-scale workshops.

Ross said the industry engagement phase — travelling to state forums, meeting joiners, hardware suppliers and timber providers — was one of the most eye-opening parts of the experience. He found some joineries still working with outdated designs that didn’t fully comply with AS 2047 or accommodate drained insulated glass units.

“I learned that innovation is not just about creating new ideas,” Ross wrote, “but also about making them accessible to your audience.” The documentation phase — technical manuals, substitution procedures, shop drawings — is now underway, aiming to give any Australian joinery everything it needs to start building with confidence.”

The Modernising Timber Windows project is one of 30 research initiatives funded through AFWI — a $200-million-plus institute backed by $100 million in Commonwealth funding. It is generating new structural and performance data across a range of solid and engineered wood products, testing how timbers perform under AS 2047, Australia’s mandatory standard for windows and external glazed doors.

• To learn more about the Australian Forest and Wood Innovations programme, visit AFWI’s dedicated website.

That is according to Metsä Wood, which confirmed its Kerto LVL was used for the entire load-bearing structure of the Xylino complex in Almere — named after the Greek word for wood — a project developed by housing corporation De Alliantie and constructor Koopmans Bouwgroep, with all modules manufactured off-site by geWOONhout.

The building delivers a mix of mid-market rental units, social housing apartments and ground-level residences, supported by a semi-underground parking structure and a shared car-free courtyard. It comes as the EU pours money into industrialised timber construction to tackle chronic housing shortages across the continent.

Wood Central understands each module arrived on site with plumbing, electrical and ventilation already installed, and that the structural system — four corner columns with integrated floor and roof elements — locks together without the need for a concrete core, a significant departure from conventional multi-storey residential construction.

And whilst CLT is the more common choice in mass timber construction, geWOONhout went with Kerto LVL — a product manufactured from 3-millimetre-thick veneers glued together, either uniformly or with 20 per cent laid crosswise depending on application — which Metsä Wood says is up to 50 per cent more resource-efficient than comparable mass timber products whilst delivering equivalent structural performance.

Sprint construction: four apartments a day

Installation followed what Metsä Wood called a sprint-based approach — ditching the traditional linear schedule in favour of rapid, concentrated bursts of activity — with teams placing eight to twelve modules per day and assembling three to four apartments simultaneously.

“This system is ready to be repeated,” according to Bas Broeke, Project Manager at Koopmans Bouwgroep. “The way it works here means we can apply it in many more places.”

CNC machining held tolerances to within 0.5 millimetres across all components, and every part in the system has a digital twin accessible via a QR code — containing dimensions, specifications, and end-of-life instructions that support both manufacturing consistency today and disassembly in the future.

The project also achieves R120 fire classification, providing 120 minutes of structural resistance as required for Dutch buildings exceeding 13 metres in height, whilst acoustic performance is delivered through olivine aggregate added to the floors — a mineral that also captures CO₂ — combined with acoustic decouplers between modules to prevent sound transmission.

And the environmental credentials extend far beyond the structure, with lighter foundations reducing transport emissions, PEFC-certified wood sourced throughout demonstrating responsible sourcing, and all site operations powered by solar. The completed buildings even feature solar panels, high-performance insulation and rainwater harvesting, whilst modules are designed from the outset for disassembly and material recovery. Low-carbon concrete was deployed only for the semi-underground parking facility.

Speaking about the project, Aafke Van der Werf, Director of geWOONhout — which manufactured all 436 modules — said the result speaks for itself. “The best thing about Xylino is that you can’t tell from the outside that it was built using industrialised methods,” she said. “To me, that proves that architectural freedom and modular construction can go hand in hand.”

Backing Harrop’s pitch is the state-owned China State Construction Engineering Corporation, which, through its Yijia Symphony in China project, proves that it can build towers with a 92% assembly rate. As part of a new joint venture with Thrive Construct, the partnership can deliver 400-apartment developments in under 12 months — and in some cases, within eight months — with up to 65% fewer skilled workers required on site. And even at that volume, Harrop said, it represents just a single day’s manufacturing capacity, “and only a few hours’ worth of renewable plantation forest growth.”

Wood Central understands that the consortium is targeting the “missing middle”: inclusive, quality mid-rise apartments that Harrop argues have been neglected for decades in favour of investment-grade towers and sprawling outer-suburban detached housing. The Thrive Alliance plans to initiate a series of reference projects across metropolitan Australia, with designs led by one of the world’s leading architects.

Mid-rise precinct-style developments in the city fringe

And the need is acute. In Sydney, over 80% of housing demand is for apartments, with the ABC reporting this week that the collapse of the first-home market due to a lack of affordable apartments has now extended beyond metropolitan Sydney. The Sydney Morning Herald also reported that around 10,000 new units are projected to be built annually over the next three years — but in the Parramatta region alone, home to around 10% of Australia’s population, it appears unlikely any affordable apartment towers will be built in the foreseeable future, as construction costs now exceed achievable sale prices.

In Western Sydney more broadly, Harrop warned, there is a “concerning lack of scalable plans” to provide affordable housing — a problem he attributes to the NSW Government’s rezoning policies and the absence of mandatory affordable housing requirements. Traditionally, apartments across Australia’s Eastern Seaboard have served as a stepping stone to home ownership, but Harrop said that pathway is “rapidly diminishing due to slow and inefficient custom construction costs” and a severe national shortage of skilled tradespeople now approaching 200,000.

According to data from the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, median-income households now need 50% of their income to service average mortgage repayments. Australia approved just 185,844 new homes in FY2024–25 — falling short by more than 54,000 against the National Housing Accord target of 240,000. The dwelling price-to-income ratio hit a record 8.2 in September 2025, according to Cotality data, with first-home buyers now facing an average 11-year wait just to save a deposit.

Compounding the supply shortage is a national shortfall of skilled tradespeople needed for apartment construction, which is now approaching 200,000, according to Harrop, who also said that rampant speculation triggered by recent government rezoning has resulted in land holdings surging 200% to 300%, with no affordable housing requirements attached. The result, he said, is that more than 3 million Sydneysiders are effectively locked out of the market, “particularly Baby Boomers looking to downsize near metropolitan railway stations and over 1 million essential workers in need of affordable rental options.”

And that pressure is already being felt across the city. Sydney’s public hospitals face significant shortages of essential workers, including teachers and aged care professionals. Key workers are being pushed to the outer suburbs and enduring daily commutes of four to five hours. Harrop warned the trend is contributing to the decline of Sydney’s CBD, “which is becoming less vibrant and more reliant on a Tuesday-to-Thursday presence, jeopardising the viability of countless small hospitality businesses.”

Harrop’s pitch arrives amid growing industry consensus that conventional construction simply cannot deliver housing at the speed or scale Australia needs. Last week, Wood Central reported that Goldman Sachs identified a major innovation gap in prefabricated technology, which in turn has widened the gap in construction productivity.

• To learn more about Thrive Construct’s plans, visit thriveconstruct.com.au. To learn more about Harrop’s plans for the world’s tallest timber hotel in Adelaide, click here.

Running for 150 days from February 24, and capable of being rolled over if Congress permits an extension, the new tariffs authorise the president to impose an import surcharge of up to 15% in cases involving a “large and serious balance‑of‑payments deficit.”

According to the proclamation released by the White House, the new tariff will not be stacked on top of existing duties — meaning that lumber, currently subject to a 10% global tariff under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, will be exempt from the surcharge.

“However, other building materials not already covered by a preexisting tariff could now face the 15 per cent surcharge,” according to a report from HSB Dealer. “(And) that means imported engineered wood products — including Oriented Strand Board (OSB), Cross‑Laminated Timber (CLT), and related products — may be subject to the new duty, with an exclusion for USMCA‑compliant imports from Canada and Mexico,” it warned.

Last year, the United States imported more than 6,344.7 thousand cubic metres of OSB (more than 93% from Canada alone), as well as 16.2 thousand cubic metres of CLT (62.8% from Canada and 29.2% from Austria). The new tariffs come just days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the president lacked authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs on a raft of products entering the United States.

It comes as U.S. importers now face a labyrinth of legal and administrative hurdles as they attempt to claw back billions in tariff payments, and whilst many companies may technically be eligible for a refund, trade attorneys warn that the path to recovery is anything but straightforward. Refund claims could be denied, delayed, or tied up in years of litigation, depending on how the Court of International Trade interprets the ruling and how U.S. Customs and Border Protection administers any repayment process.

Meanwhile, tariff revenue continues to pour into federal coffers. Collections surged to $30 billion in January alone, pushing the year‑to‑date total to $124 billion — a staggering 304% increase compared with the same period in 2025.

In his dissent, Justice Brett Kavanaugh cautioned that the ruling may unleash significant short‑term disruption. “One issue will be refunds,” he wrote, noting that returning billions of dollars in duties could have “significant consequences for the U.S. Treasury.” He added that the Court offered no guidance on “whether, and if so how,” the government should return the money, warning that the process was likely to be a “mess,” echoing concerns raised during oral argument.

Trump himself foreshadowed the chaos in a social media post last month, writing that “it would take many years to figure out what number we are talking about and even, who, when, and where, to pay.” He added that the refund process “would be a complete mess, and almost impossible for our Country to pay.”

• To learn more about the Supreme Court decision, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from Saturday.

And whilst the core of the terminal opened to passengers in 2024, the past 18 months have been dedicated to demolishing and rebuilding the north and south nodes — a task carried out while the airport remained fully operational. And Wood Central understands that the final configuration now links ticketing, security and circulation spaces into a single, seismically isolated volume, eliminating the bottlenecks that characterised the interim construction period.

“The last 30% of Portland Airport’s main terminal project, on both the north and south of wing of the terminal, will wrap up by June, adding new restaurants, shops, bathrooms, art, and improved passenger flow,” according to Alamy McCarty, a reporter for KGW8 news who toured the new section. “As we open up the last 30% of the project, you’ll see the continuation of a walk in the forest.”  

Behind the Douglas fir interior lies one of the most advanced seismic designs for any airport anywhere in the world, with the structure engineered to remain fully operational both during and after a magnitude‑9.0 Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake, whilst high‑tech base isolation bearings are installed beneath the columns to allow the roof and floor plates to move independently from the ground. And for crews, this meant threading new structural systems through an active terminal — a challenge far removed from a greenfield build.

And the logistical demands are immense. Crews had to demolish the old ticket lobbies and baggage claim areas just metres from live passenger operations, while simultaneously erecting the steel that “stitched” the Phase 1 roof to the new Phase 2 sections. The distinctive Y‑columns now run uninterrupted from end to end, supporting the undulating mass timber diaphragm that has become the project’s signature.

Attention is now shifted to interior fit‑out. Electricians are completing the LED lighting integration within the timber coffers, while finish trades install terrazzo flooring designed to mimic the dappled light of a forest floor. The final retail nodes are also taking shape, with the Port of Portland prioritising local operators over generic airport franchises.

The supply chain behind the project remains one of its defining achievements. More than 2.5 million board feet of glulam beams and lattice were sourced from within a 300‑mile radius, including tribal lands and small family‑owned forests. Timberlab and Zip‑O‑Laminators led the mass timber fabrication, while W&W | AFCO Steel delivered the structural steel package.

• To learn more about the airport, click here for Wood Central’s exclusive interview with Jared Revy, the Director of Manufacturing for Timberlab, one of North America’s largest mass timber manufacturers and fabricators of the massive build.