A series of monthly webinars about key aspects of building with mass timber continues from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, June 3, with a segment regarding the use of hardwoods in mass timber.

The series is an outgrowth of Michigan’s recent Mass Timber Summit, a virtual meeting that took place last fall and was co-hosted by the Michigan Forest Biomaterials Institute and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. All of the webinars are hosted by MIFBI.

Presenting the June 3 session is Xinfeng Xie, assistant professor of forest biomaterials at Michigan Technological University. Register for this webinar.

An additional webinar is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 19. Daniel M. Dowden, associate professor at Michigan Technological University, will look at mass timber buildings in relation to regulations and research regarding seismic force. Register for this webinar.

Although they are free, the webinars are limited to 100 guests and registration is required. Recordings of past events and details about upcoming webinars are available on the MIFBI website.

Mass timber construction allows for building large and tall structures using engineered wood. Mass timber construction often goes up faster than traditional construction and uses renewable materials.

Michigan State University used mass timber construction in its $100 million, 117,000-square-foot STEM Teaching and Learning Facility. The DNR is in the design phase of a planned $5 million mass timber building to house its field office and customer service center in Newberry in the eastern Upper Peninsula. Watch this MSU video to learn more about how mass timber works.