From Forest to Frame: How Mass Timber is Addressing Oregon's Housing Crisis

In Oregon, where we need an estimated 140,000 new housing units, innovative construction methods are essential to meet the challenge. One promising approach is taking root right in our own backyard: mass timber. Recently, we spoke with Marcus Kauffman, who leads economic development efforts at the Oregon Department of Forestry, about how this growing industry is positioned to transform housing production while supporting healthier forests.

Marcus Kauffman, Oregon Department of Forestry

What is Mass Timber?

"Mass timber is the technology that allows us to build tall wood buildings," explains Kauffman. "Tall buildings used to be exclusively the domain of concrete and steel and glass. But now, since we can put small pieces of wood together into large panels, we have a substitute for concrete and steel."

This approach offers multiple benefits. Proponents tout mass timber’s ability to act as a carbon sink - storing carbon dioxide absorbed by trees, effectively sequestering it within the building’s structure. Additionally, building occupants may experience the "biophilic effect" of wood – the natural material may lower people's heart rates and improves productivity. And perhaps most importantly, wood is the only renewable building material that's commercially available at scale.

The aesthetic appeal of mass timber also may have a market advantage. "If you want to build a building that will give you an advantage, whether that's in leasing up or in speed of construction, you have to work really hard to do that," notes Kauffman. "Mass timber as a material gets you that very easily because you have the warmth of wood."

The Oregon Mass Timber Ecosystem

What makes Oregon special in the mass timber space isn't just our abundant forests – it's the collaborative ecosystem we've built around this technology. Kauffman describes it as "more than just a supply chain where people make money along the way. It's really collaborative problem solving and mutual support."

This ecosystem includes forests that are harvested sustainably, manufacturers making cross-laminated timber and other mass timber products (companies like Mercer, Freres, and Timberlab), fabricators with specialized CNC machines, construction firms experienced in mass timber, and a newer group of modular mass timber companies entering the space.

"Why are those companies here? They're here because the rest of the supply chain is maturing," Kauffman explains. "The intellectual firepower and know-how and knowledge and market acceptance – all those things are here."

This ecosystem extends beyond industry to include research institutions like the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, Washington State University, and University of Washington. Kauffman emphasizes that these universities aren't just generating knowledge – they're conducting applied research driven by industry needs.

"We are partnering with the universities to focus their research capabilities on real-world problems for real people," he says. "We are building an applied research and industry-driven approach that directs resources from the university to address the gaps and barriers that industry is facing."

Mass Timber and Housing Production

One of mass timber's most promising applications is in accelerating housing production through prefabrication and modular construction.

"The way mass timber gets put together is you take large elements, whether they're panels or beams for floors or ceilings or walls, and it's essentially a kit of parts that gets fabricated in a factory, shipped to the job site," Kauffman explains. "Erection of these buildings is very fast."

This factory-based approach offers significant advantages in today's construction environment. "In an environment where labor for construction is constrained, these buildings take fewer people and go up faster," notes Kauffman.

The precision engineering behind mass timber is another advantage. Kauffman describes how one company, Mods PDX, discovered they could dramatically decrease labor costs by switching to mass timber floors and ceilings. "Because of the precision of the product – a 10’-by-30’ panel which is square within an eighth of an inch – that's a radical transformation," he says.

This precision eliminates many time-consuming steps in traditional construction. "You lay down these panels onto a floor system and boom, your floor is now square, because the product that you're working with is square."

Forest Health and Housing: A Virtuous Cycle

Perhaps one of the most compelling aspects of mass timber is how it creates a virtuous cycle between forest management and housing production. Kauffman, who served as a public information officer for Oregon Department of Forestry's large incident management teams for nine years, sees a direct connection between mass timber and wildfire resilience.

"Where do the large fires occur? They occur mostly on public lands," he explains. The response to this challenge involves removing small trees and brush to moderate fire behavior. But this work is costly and needs to be done at a very large scale – an estimated 5 million acres in Oregon alone.

"What mass timber has created is a stronger driver, a stronger mechanism to help pull that material off," says Kauffman. By creating value for smaller-diameter trees that previously had limited uses, mass timber provides a revenue stream that can help fund forest management work.

"We can take small trees and turn them into 2-by-6s or turn them into veneer but glue them all together into these large panels so that they can handle bigger loads found in large buildings."

Innovations on the Horizon

While mass timber has primarily been used in commercial and institutional buildings so far, innovative companies are bringing this technology into the housing sector through modular approaches.

"We're getting a lot closer on housing," Kauffman says, pointing to companies like Mods PDX, Unbrick, Zaugg, and Cedar Stone. "These are essentially four startups that are taking advantage of the digital fabrication capabilities and how that opens and unlocks modular production. They're bringing those solutions to the housing market."

These companies are pioneering hybrid approaches that combine mass timber components with other construction methods to create more efficient, cost-effective housing production systems.

Building an Optimistic Future

Despite the challenges of Oregon's housing crisis, Kauffman remains optimistic about mass timber's potential to help address it.

"I've been to more events around housing in the last three months than I ever have before," he says, noting the increased conversation between public and private sectors about housing production. He points to initiatives like House Bill 3145, a proposed $50 million pilot program to advance prefabricated and off-site housing in Oregon.

"That indicates that the policy conversation values innovation as part of the solution to the housing crisis. How are we going to build more houses, how are we going to get to 140,000? We're going to do that by finding new ways to build faster while maintaining quality and performance."

The interest in mass timber extends well beyond Oregon. "Mass timber as an economic development strategy, as a method for addressing housing production – it's catching on nationwide," Kauffman says. Similar coalitions are forming in Washington, Michigan, Colorado, Maine, and even California, with Oregon leading the way.

"The Northwest is leading the way, but we are not alone. All the places across the country that have forests are interested in mass timber and housing because everybody sees the potential."

For more information on mass timber, please visit the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition and the Pacific Northwest Mass Timber Tech Hub.

Additionally, an overview of how materials like mass plywood and systematizing modular design can help accelerate housing production can be viewed HERE.