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100 years ago, old-growth trees were used to make columns, girders, and planks for commercial buildings. Butler Square in Minneapolis is a good example of this applied construction technology. It was a sound construction strategy; 100 years of service is impressive. However, limitations arose from the availability of old-growth trees to be used for this purpose.

50 years ago mechanical designers in the Minneapolis area took the innovative step of applying emerging heat pump technology to indoor climate applications. It was revolutionary. Systems were simplified and installed costs plummeted. It was a serviceable technology for many commercial applications.

Fast forward to today, and the old is being made new again. The fabricated, structural timber industry now makes components to build frames and floors without relying on old-growth trees. To the contrary, 12 to 14-year-old trees are farmed and harvested to make glue-laminated products for the construction of timber frames and CLT floor systems (cross laminated timber).

Application of heat pumps is being used for high-efficiency indoor climate systems.  The hydronic water piping systems move the energy around the building to where it’s needed. The side of the building in sunlight sheds its excess heat (aka cooling) to the shaded side of the building requiring heating. This distribution by way of the heat pumps leads to reduced energy consumption for indoor climate and comfort.

It turns out that the many energy-saving advantages of wood when combined with high-efficiency indoor climate squarely addresses the issues of energy conservation needed in this era of global warming brought by man’s activity.

Care taken in the building industry can make a big difference;  join the movement!

(see the blog post at this site: “Timber and Advanced Energy Project Planned in the Upper-Midwest.”)

Cross laminated timber (CLT) is on a tipping point to bring big change to the midwest construction industry that builds in wood. On the face of it, CLT is just another wood floor product, but it is really more than that in many ways.

First the definition: CLT is a large flat panel made from smaller boards, arranged perpendicular to one another, and glued and pressed together. They come in various thicknesses from roughly 3” (3 ply) to 12” (7-9 ply), and in sizes up to 12’x 60’. 

From structural engineering perspective, CLT offers a variety of layout patterns for strength and serviceability. From a construction engineering point of view, CLT can be revolutionary with respect to speed up construction. A small crew using light tools and assisted by mobile hoisting machinery can lift and place panels very quickly.

Developers also like CLT because it has the potential of saving building height while preserving volume within the building. After all volume is what brings the rent not building height. The tenants who pay the rent also tend to love the look and feel of the wood ceilings (the exposed underside of CLT floors).

CLT got it started in Europe and then migrated to the Pacific Northwest and West Canada. It’s in these locations that plants have sprung up in many projects using CLT have been built. Now the time has come for the Midwest to join the CLT club as the production and distribution systems expand.

Wilkinson Building Advisors is working with various organizations including Katerra based in Seattle to bring the first demonstration projects to the Midwest. Katerra’s local representative in the midwest is Pete Kobelt at pete.kobelt@katerra.com. Pete has deep experience with CLT products.

Wilkinson Building Advisors (formerly Wpg Ltd) is in ongoing conversations and exchange of documents with the several government and private investors in connection with creating several demonstration projects in the upper Midwest.

1. The concept is that these projects would engage several intersecting technologies to create low carbon footprint buildings. These technologies are:
   • Glue laminated mass timber frames (Glulam) and cross-laminated (CLT) timber floor systems and shaft walls (to resolve lateral loads)
   • Structural integrated panels (SIPs) for exterior wall and roof panels (structural integrated panels)
   • Interior climate systems (energy exchange, distribution, and ventilation) including technologies to measure/control/report energy consumption in hydronic systems
   • Computer-based design and manufacturing control systems
2. The combination of the these systems is synergist with respect to reducing the carbon footprint of these buildings:
   • Sequestering CO2 in the timber products
   • Avoidance of energy expended in concrete production and steel assembly fabrications when appropriate
   • Application of enclosure systems designed for extreme climates
   • Design of indoor climate systems based on passive, sustainable solutions and using systems avoiding combustion based energy exchange
   • “Tinker-Toy” precast concrete assemblies for podiums and selected lateral load resisting systems
   • “Building in a box” construction management techniques; sequential shipment to tight sites, erection by small efficient crews
   • A high degree of off-site completion for the “kit of parts” as well as modular assemblies
3. The scale and geographic distribution of these projects is intended to showcase the possible and bring the market to a tipping point. These initiatives target 2 prototypical markets
   • Urban, infill, mixed use; small scale, 40-75,000sf, 3-5 stories; suitable for building in congested and complex urban environments
   • Private higher education, classroom addition or environmental science building; embodying the sense of mission of the institution
4. Here are snippets of the ideas from Woodworks, a leading building advisory group:

This author believes that demonstration projects, well executed, can attract the attention of both policy and market-makers. The walk-through, “touch and feel” experience of these proposed  and delightful places can be compelling. As the marketing folks would say: it makes the intangible… tangible.

This is a chance to engage a far-flung industry to plan for the benefit of the planet and the quality of life in the upper-midwest. Join the movement!

Gunter Dittmar was my icon in graduate school. He was a despondent German expatriate bombed into depression while growing up in Berlin during the Allied blitz. Amid his slow and thoughtful speech was a bit of genius. He understood that the “problem solving process” and the “problem seeking process” involved keeping the “levels of abstraction” aligned and not mixed up.

For example, you can’t solve the big picture if you’re focused too early on how many doorknobs and how much they cost each. Ultimately you care about the doorknobs, but only in the right sequence and at the right time.

          “The is nothing more worrisome that the wrong question answered well”            (quote from South American Architect on TED talks)

The reasons for the mix-ups are many are 1) participants competing for influence in the process and sowing mixed levels just to be in the conversation, 2) sometimes the logical structure of the issue is simply misunderstood and the conversationalists get down the rabbit hole, 3) the participating silos have standards of practice that run in opposition to one another, 4) the participants don’t like one another, and 5) disorderly allocation of risk (hours of effort in dollars) etc .

In any event put first things first as you move from concepts to details.

(For purposes of this document, planning, design, construction, and development of real property (a.k.a. buildings) will be referred to as the “AEC” industry.)

It is common that many customers to services in the AEC industry seldom do business there and in many cases the project undertaken is a “one-off.” Furthermore, these customers find themselves in the position of attempting to manage many intertwining contracts while all at the same time successfully operating the business that brought them to needing more in the way of property (buildings). These conditions, in and of themselves put up barriers to success, but there are more equally significant obstacles lurking at the outset.

Though integration of services in the AEC Industry is a rising trend, many Owners find themselves attempting to operate in the unfamiliar territory of “design, then bid, then build.”

(See the article entitled “Why design build is Hard and Owners should insist”) . Not infrequently, as the project moves into its early moments, Owners will find themselves attempting to sort out competing claims made by various parties (architects, builders, construction managers, real estate advisors…), that they are the most qualified party to lead the process. Interestingly, there is no single answer to the question of who is most qualified to lead, but there is a more critical question: what do you do to get started properly and not waste a lot of time and money?

The so-called “front-end work” is the answer to the question.

If done well, this process can be characterized as: spend a little, get a lot. The AEC Industry has some standards of practice for the work products that should be created during front-end work. In a general way they are: i) a preliminary project description, ii) preliminary plans, iii) a cost plan, iv) a whole project chart of accounts, and v) a chunky time plan.

A preliminary project description (PPD) is a collection of words that capture the overall nature of the solution sought including key metrics such as size, functional pieces and parts, purpose etc. A lot has been written about the PPD framework. The architectural design community sometimes calls the PPD the program documents. A more detailed description of the PPD is out of the scope of this document.

Preliminary plans show in the diagrams what the PPD represents in words. The architectural design community often refers to preliminary plans as early schematics.

The cost plan lays out budget ranges for the ideas recorded in the PPD and preliminary plans. Successful cost planning is high art and the subject to additional writings by this author. As a general matter, successful cost planning must be based on verifiable history and market conditions. Additionally, the whole project chart of accounts records all costs the Owner will bear during the project development time period. Design and construction costs are subset to the complete list of project costs.

Lastly, the time plan should layout in large blocks the actions of complete development from the earliest moments of front-end work to substantial completion and turnover for use.

A solid front-end work package gives the Owner the essential basis to confirm feasibility (or not) and to make informed decisions about how to select, contract for, and administer the project team. Naturally, the size of the work effort for an appropriate front-end varies according to the size and complexity of the proposed project. Nonetheless, these five components are the essential pieces. As a general matter, only experienced professionals can lead and guide this process. Teams should not be “associations of convenience” but rather verifiably experienced. It is not uncommon for various of the proposed team members to want to “Be at the front of the line,'” the de facto” leader. The Owner should guard against making purely relationship-based selections and instead look with clear eyes for verifiable examples of similar projects completed.

As Owners contemplate a project, many forces compete for executive attention both in the areas of the proposed project and the underlying business itself. Undertaking the necessary critical front-end work requires a steady experienced hand.

To get started well, spend a little, and get a lot.

Other related stories by this author posted on LinkIn:

           • “The New Owner (Representative)”

           • “Ethics in Design-Build Planning”

           • “Silly fight… designers and builders have a lot in common”

           • “Why design-build is Hard and every Owner should insist”

(Revisions and update 031019….)

The rapid of evolution in communications platforms is fundamentally changing how we work and in many cases this changes point towards efficiency and effectiveness. Minneapolis recently had record snowfalls and is interesting to note that many of the parking ramps were near empty. What was going on? Of course in many cases folks just took a “snow day.” But this writer believes that also in many cases the remote workers just stayed off the road, and connected to commerce “on the wire.”

Only recently, videoconferencing required many tens of thousands of dollars of special equipment in the conference room. Now, the laptops and some broadband access provides videoconferencing for mere pennies. These interactive features combined with online data sharing and document management change everything.

The era of the virtual assistant is rising. This has interesting implications for the traditional (and emerging) Owner Representative roles. Now, the well connected owner representative can provide services in real time without the unnecessary overhead expense of driving across town in traffic or copying documents.

This advisory group is “well-wired” and experienced. 

Applied technology in the building industry is now at a tipping point. The intersection of timber construction technologies with indoor climate energy exchange and management is creating powerful new market opportunities.

Applied technology has been rapidly advancing on parallel paths:

1. Constructing large buildings with new timber products
2. Serving the neighborhood with efficient and affordable energy solution
3. Creating comfortable indoor climate while reducing required combustion

Building with timber products locks-up (sequesters) CO2 taken from the atmosphere during the wood growing period; our forests can now be sustainably farmed. Now, all three can be combined in modest-sized urban buildings to begin the journey to reduced carbon and near-zero carbon footprints. Here’s how:

• Building with timber avoids the unnecessary use of energy intensive products such as structural steel and concrete

• Energy used for indoor climate comfort can now be measured and controlled, even in small spaces

• Energy distribution systems can be built at the scale of neighborhoods thus reducing operating costs for all members

• New energy exchange systems are emerging that limit on-site combustion requirements

Here’s where the capitalism comes in and the investment opportunities arise. Wilkinson Building Advisors is working with its associates to design demonstration projects that help hard-headed investment decisions align with saving the planet.

Join the movement! 

The cultural headwinds have long been on the bow of the so-called design-build movement. It took nearly 50 years of cultural warfare for the various participants to see their integrative potential. It is easy to see how the cultural divide is built into the DNA of the various designers, engineers, builders, salespeople, financial engineers, and business managers; they are all different people with different worldviews and ways of behaving. The marketplace finally demanded cooperation and collaboration. By the 1990’s, the acceptance of the design-build approach was no longer in dispute.

Unfortunately, as in work and in greater life, people have an affinity for their group. Even if the prospective workgroup is able to conquer its interpersonal differences, there are additional hurdles with respect to standards of practice:

• Inductive thinking versus deductive thinking
• Mixed up levels of abstraction at various stages of the problem-solving process 
• Different ways of expression (e.g.  graphical vs. text)
• Different vocabulary

Old habits change slowly and it is up to the entity spending the money (the “Owner”) to demand alignment of all participants to the tasks at hand. The measurable results of an effective design-build process are early efficiency and creative problem solving followed by execution within an agreed to budget and schedule.

The phrase “design-build” signals the common sense nature of the process: in order to get the best outcome, both design and construction must be on the table. The combined professional judgement of both the designers and builder are logically inseparable. It makes no sense to design a project and then discover if a project is buildable or affordable. Seldom does an individual possess all of the required skills and knowledge.

Cooperation and collaboration seldom come easily, particularly in pressure-packed business settings. Thjs writer’s advice to Owners is to seek and hire a design-builder who has a successful record of performance: on time, on schedule, the required quality, and the intended design.