CREDIT TK Fall 2025 25 F O R E S T R Y INTO THE WOODS HOW OSU HELPED PUT TIMBER AT THE FOCUS OF THE NEW PDX TERMINAL By Siobhan Murray To walk into the Portland airport’s new main terminal is to find yourself in a spacious glade within a Pacific Northwest forest, complete with dappled light streaming through skylights to highlight the golden hues of floor-to-ceiling wood. The star of the show is the 9-acre, undulating Douglas fir roof — part of the largest mass timber project of its kind in the world. (Mass timber is smaller pieces of wood fastened together into beams, columns or panels that are as strong as steel or concrete but less carbon intensive.) More than two dozen Oregon State alumni worked on the PDX project — recently named one of the world’s most beautiful airports — and it reflects OSU’s role in bringing mass timber construction to the U.S. Late College of Forestry Dean Thomas Maness encouraged the Oregon-based DR Johnson Lumber Company to become the first commercial mill in the U.S. to produce cross-laminated timber panels for use in buildings. Partnering with the University of Oregon, he also helped create the TallWood Design Institute, one of just 31 national “Tech Hubs.”The institute conducts testing in OSU’s A.A. “Red” Emmerson Advanced Wood Products Lab and other facilities, innovating new products, influencing building codes and advocating for investment. “The PDX project wouldn’t have happened without the mass timber revolution that started because of activities at OSU,” says Thomas DeLuca, Cheryl Ramberg Ford andAllyn C. Ford Dean of the College of Forestry.“When I walk into the Portland airport and see the beautiful display of wood, it feels like Beaver town.” BIG GLULAM BEAMS Eugene business Zip-O-Laminators manufactured these lightweight, mega-strong laminated beams, made from wood sourced from Yakama Nation (the largest contributor of wood to the roof), the Coquille Indian Tribe and a mix of Oregon landowners, including OSU research forests. EMA PETER PHOTOGRAPHY; INSET: DROR BALDINGER MORE GREEN, LESS STRESS Tree-limb and boulder-shaped seating alongside 72 mature trees, 5,000 plants and 49 skylights promotes visitors’ connection with nature to curb travel stress. Even the irregular, curved pattern of wood grain in the terminal’s floor-to-ceiling wood construction was designed to have a psychological effect, say project architects ZGF, whose team included three Oregon State grads.
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