Celebrating The Bones

Photo Credit: Palm Springs Museum

Celebrating The Bones

by Jessica Handy
June 21, 2023

Framing. It is the infrastructure, the skeleton, or the bones, of most residential and low rise construction in the United States, and it has been made of wood for a long long time. An exhibit currently at the Palm Springs Art Museum's Architecture and Design Center examines what the curator's refer to as "one of the country's most overlooked yet common construction systems." They refer to framing as "underappreciated." We get it. When discussing a project with a client, we focus on the overall design and specify the fixtures and finishes that support the aesthetic. We do not focus on the literal support of the aesthetic. We do not ask our clients how they feel about roof trusses, or sill plates, for example. But we know what they are and their importance. We know the value of the quality of the framing installation, and the spacing of the wood beams, and the location of the tie-downs, and why the engineers require shearwall, and how important door and window headers are. Where the framing material is very simple; some 2x4's, plywood and some nails (well, not this simple but close), the engineering of the installation of the material is extraordinarily complex. Every element must attached to another element in a particular way with a specific fastener that provides stability for the finish material that will be applied, and against forces of nature that could bring it down. Also "underappreciated" is the sustainability of wood in construction. Wood's carbon footprint is 75% less than concrete or steel; wood is renewable, it can be grown, it is not a natural resource that can be depleted; and our forests are protected, by conservation organizations and certifications such as Forest Stewardship Council (USGBC website). And with the acceptance of the cross-laminated timber (CLT) or "mass timber" material by the International Building Code, many states have begun allowing its use. CLT has been used in construction in Europe for 20 years. It is an engineered wood made of layers of woods glued together without VOCs in such a way that it "rivals the load-baring capacity of concrete and steel" (Reuters online, August 25, 2022). So not surprisingly, only a few years after legalization, the United States has already built the tallest mass timber building in the world. Championed by the USDA and the US Forest Service, the Ascent MKE building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is 25 stories tall. Los Angeles' largest CLT building is a 5-story office building in Chinatown currently available for lease. Mass timber construction is revolutionary in it's engineering and stunning in it's appearance, so it should be "overlooked" no longer.