May 2025

Steel Industry Group and SLB Partner Embraces Steel-Timber Hybrid Construction

A new video from constructsteel, the World Steel Association’s market development program and an SLB partner, celebrates steel-timber hybrid construction as a path to building more sustainable cities. 

“By merging the strength of steel with the benefits of timber, steel-timber hybrid structures reduce carbon emissions while meeting the demands of modern architecture,” the video says. The video points to examples both in the United States and abroad, including 843 N. Spring Street, a five-story-tall, 145,000-square-feet mixed-use project in Los Angeles, where LEVER Architecture used exposed CLT floors to display the beauty of wood while reducing the weight of the structure and creating significant embodied carbon savings.

According to the 2026 Construction Outlook prepared for the SLB by Forest Economic Advisors, steel structures with mass timber walls, such as warehouses, represent a potential annual volume of 185 MM BF, while steel post-and-beam projects with mass timber decking, an option for multifamily projects, represent 687 MM BF of annual opportunity. 

The SLB has been working with the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and constructsteel to unlock this opportunity, beginning by establishing the Steel-Timber Hybrid Buildings Conference in 2022. The partnership continued in 2024 with the launch of a CTBUH research report funded by the SLB and constructsteel. SLB President and CEO Cees de Jager spoke in October at the constructsteel conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, about the opportunities for both industries to increase the use of steel-wood hybrid construction in the United States. These efforts have paved the way for the major steel industry group to embrace hybrid structures, helping to access new market opportunities for lumber.

Industry Leader Considers SLB’s Role Essential to Growing Market

The coming years are critical to the lumber industry’s efforts to increase market share and grow demand. The lumber industry has made incredible progress on codes and standards and in the market share for wood construction—but without continuing our investment, we’ll lose the gains we’ve made.

Throughout the year, we’ll be highlighting leaders in the industry, SLB programs, and SLB partners to illustrate how and why the softwood lumber industry is working collectively to ensure we continue to grow market share. This month, SLB Chair Emerita Caroline Dauzat, Owner of Rex Lumber, explains why it’s important for the industry to continue building momentum and developing a path to keep expanding market share.

“As a past chair, I have found the focus that SLB brings to our industry is essential,” Dauzat says. “The board has been a positive force pushing us forward and engaging in what is really important, which is growing our market share. That is the most critical goal for us all. The SLB and its programs accomplish this not only by defending our market share where we are traditionally strong, in single-family construction and repair and remodeling, but in bringing lumber into new markets such as multifamily construction, nonresidential buildings, and mass timber. Each of the SLB programs have been vital in these efforts.”

In 2027 Codes, the AWC Defends and Grows Opportunities for Wood

The International Code Council’s I-codes form the basis for building safety codes in all 50 U.S. states, so ensuring the codes remain receptive and favorable to wood is a major priority. The current 2027 I-code development process began last year with the Group A cycle and will continue through 2026. During the Group A phase, the AWC achieved critical wins for the lumber industry, including successfully gaining approval to have the 2024 Fire Design (FDS) Specification for Wood Construction referenced in the 2027 I-codes.

In 2025, the AWC's codes team is continuing its engagement through the Group B process. In this Group B cycle, the concrete, masonry, and steel industries are trying to roll back the allowance for 100% exposed mass timber ceilings in Type IV-B buildings first introduced in the 2024 IBC. The AWC moved quickly to review the proposal and coordinate with key allies ahead of the recent April hearings. The change proposal was disapproved. This favorable action also generated significant feedback concurring with AWC analysis that the attempted roll-back of exposed ceilings was not supported by the referenced test reports.

Coordinated through the AWC’s Subcommittee on Codes and Product Acceptance, the AWC’s work in I-code development is critical to ensuring broad regulatory acceptance of wood products and ensuring model codes reflect the latest available information on safe and appropriate wood use. 

WoodWorks Inspires Design Teams and Developers With Built Wood Projects

Combined with education and project support, having people experience a wood building firsthand is a key tactic WoodWorks uses to inspire developers and building designers to pursue their own wood project. 

• The Regional Director (RD) for Texas recently hosted a seminar at The Offices at Southstone Yards, a 6-over-1 speculative project now fully leased to Toyota. This was the developer’s first use of mass timber, and WoodWorks provided extensive support. The event attracted 52 design and construction professionals interested in learning how to realize mass timber’s benefits.
• The RD for Georgia partnered with Jamestown for a presentation about smart communities, followed by a tour of Jamestown’s 619 Ponce project in Atlanta. The event pulled in 55 attendees and led to a lunch-and-learn with a developer who wants to discuss a hotel project.
• WoodWorks hosted a tour of a mass timber–steel hybrid project for 12 members of ULI Idaho and the state’s real estate community. The architect, general contractor, mass timber installer, and a WoodWorks RD shared their perspectives to help attendees better understand this building type.
• The RD for Northern California hosted a sold-out tour of the University of California–Berkeley’s first mass timber building on campus, targeting the invitations to developers and large tech companies. The project, which has three- and five-story wings, will house more than 10% of general assignment classrooms, introducing a new generation of students to the benefits of wood education buildings. 

WoodWorks has found success offering a variety of educational opportunities that give practitioners different levels of engagement with its team—from national webinars to regional seminars, tours, third-party speaking engagements, and on-demand learning. During Q1, WoodWorks provided 22,480 education hours through 88 events.

SLB Education’s VR Experience Puts Students Into Mass Timber Construction—No Hard Hat Required

Architecture students from programs across the Pacific Northwest test‑drove the SLB’s new virtual‑reality learning resource at the recent American Institute of Architecture Students West Quad Conference hosted by the University of Idaho. The immersive tool drops users into full‑scale mass timber buildings, complete with sweeping atriums, connection close‑ups, and narrated insights on product fabrication and on‑site assembly. 

The immersive format solves two common barriers faculty cite when introducing timber: limited access to built examples near campus and reduced capacity for student field trips. By bringing the building to the classroom, the module lets instructors weave timber case studies into courses and design studios without adding the logistics and safety challenges of in-person site visits. Early feedback from West Quad participants was enthusiastic: “Students really enjoyed the experience! It was incredibly immersive, offering a firsthand look at mass timber production and assembly and truly elevated our discussions and interest,” said Conner Reakes, AIAS Chapter President at the University of Idaho. 

The SLB will provide the experience at the AIAS Midwest and Northeast Quad conferences—hosted by the University of Kansas and the University at Buffalo, respectively—with additional deployments booked for other campuses throughout 2025. The software is preloaded onto cutting-edge devices and loaned to academic partners. Faculty and investors interested in piloting the teaching resource should contact Education Director Reed Kelterborn at rkelterborn@softwoodlumberboard.org.

By turning any classroom into a virtual site visit, the module deepens the SLB’s partnerships with architecture, engineering, and construction management programs and equips the next generation of designers and builders to specify wood with confidence.

College of Architecture Pavilion Serves as a Learning Lab for Wood Construction

Think Wood’s recent case study of the new mass timber HDR Pavilion at the College of Architecture at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln highlights not only the beauty and carbon reduction of the mass timber structure, but also the building’s value as a teaching tool for students and classes related to mass timber.

“It’s just amazing from a teaching standpoint,” Dean Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg says in Think Wood’s article. “I love the clarity and the integrity because you can just see how all the parts and pieces go together, how sheer is addressed, how lateral bracing [is addressed].” And the positive reception has not just been from the students. “I walked an alum through the building this weekend and he literally hugged the lateral bracing,” he says.

Constructing academic buildings represents a significant opportunity for the lumber industry, with 1.5 BBF of annual incremental lumber potential by 2035 if wood reaches 81% market share, according to FEA’s 2026 Construction Outlook. The increased volume would come from a mix of light-frame, mass timber, and steel-timber hybrid construction. Think Wood is highlighting the value of wood construction in both K-12 facilities and university projects, including a recent video featuring Founders Hall at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.

WoodWorks Helps Architect Extend Mass Timber Expertise to Offices

Each month, the SLB features a wood project resulting from the programs it funds. This month, we spotlight a 55,000-square-foot office building where WoodWorks support helped an architect find success that could lead to more mass timber projects from one of the country’s biggest real estate developers.

While Kirksey Architecture has experience designing mass timber education projects—including the award-winning San Jacinto College Anderson-Ball Classroom Building—and has designed many office buildings in other materials, One Bridgeland Green is the firm’s first mass timber office.

Initially, the firm reached out to WoodWorks about potential manufacturers. Later, a Regional Director invited the firm to co-lead a tour of the San Jacinto project for developers, including a representative from Howard Hughes, the owner/developer of One Bridgeland Green. As the design progressed, the RD assisted on topics such as construction type, grid layout/column spacing, and approaches to termite protection. He also provided technical resources, including the WoodWorks’ Cost and Design Optimization Checklists.

Now under construction and projected to use 21.9 bf/sq. ft., One Bridgeland Green is the first mass timber project by Howard Hughes and the first mass timber office building in Houston. At a panel last year, Howard Hughes Development Manager Riddhi Doshi said the building was 80% leased ahead of completion despite its atypical location outside of the city center. “A lot of people raised their eyebrows when we said we were building an office there, but it has worked out great for us,” Doshi said.

The Future Is Under Construction. And It’s Framed With Wood.

François Robichaud, Partner for Market Research and Engineered Wood Products at Forest Economic Advisors (FEA), is an expert on the market for lumber and wood products and a frequent collaborator with the SLB. In a guest article for the SLB, Robichaud explains why he and his team believe that a transition to increased wood use is well underway. 

“With the support of efforts by the Softwood Lumber Board and its funded programs—WoodWorks, the AWC, Think Wood, and SLB Education—light-frame construction is making further inroads into midrise, multifamily construction, and mass timber is transforming the construction industry at an unprecedented pace,” he writes.

In the article, Robichaud takes a deeper look at segments with major potential for growth in lumber’s market share, including midrise multifamily construction with both light-frame and mass timber, education buildings, offices, and warehouses. The SLB has worked closely with FEA to understand and analyze these market opportunities, and it’s developing a vision for growth aligned with the efforts needed to boost lumber’s market share.