Mass Plywood Panel Retrofits

Project Information

In the past decade, we have witnessed extreme weather events, forest fires and power outages on the West Coast, exposing milions of Americans to the loss of life, property and livelihood. Amidst national efforts to achieve net zero energy solutions to mitigate climate change through energy retrofits, we identify the need for seismic retrofits for the West Coast.

The University of Oregon and Oregon State University are collaborating through TallWood Design Institute (TDI) to upgrade aging, energy inefficient and seismically unprepared multifamily housing by developing a mass plywood (MPP) retrofit panel assembly that employs digital workflows and small diameter logs (down to 5”) to create an economically viable energy/seismic retrofit model for the West Coast and beyond. The project has broad potential to support forested federal land management agencies and private forestry by providing a new market for small diameter logs.

By braiding the needs for healthy, resiliant forests with the need for economically, energy and seismically resilient communities, we hope to popularize retrofitting while keeping our forests healthy.

Project Team: Mark Fretz, Jason Stenson, Andre Barbosa, Jörn Dettmer, Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg, Judith Sheine