What Integrated Execution Looks Like

01. Accurate Pricing Eliminates Risk Premiums

Swinerton’s ability to price accurately, coordinate early, and avoid change orders eliminates the “timber risk premium” other general contractors often add to cover their uncertainty. This pricing accuracy stems from deep project experience and integrated supply chain knowledge.

“Our advantage is that we know the risks, can price accurately from the start, and set realistic expectations—sometimes higher than clients expect, sometimes lower than competitors—but always accurate and executable,” Chris Evans explains. The modeling capabilities further reinforce this advantage. “Others can integrate models, but our level of detail and alignment with architects’ models is higher. That precision sets us apart.” “With the level of confidence in Timberlab’s pricing and their extensive knowledge of mass timber, Swinerton can focus on leveraging that knowledge to equip architects and inform better solutions for critical building systems including the foundations, the mechanical system, the envelope, and drywall encapsulation to name a few,” Silva adds. “Through that strategic take on a framework of decisions founded in collaboration and transparency, lower costs and faster project delivery are realized, further demonstrating how Swinerton and Timberlab solve the equation for the building and are better together for mass timber solutions.”

Portland State University, Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design

Swinerton’s model-based estimating enabled rapid, accurate pricing for Portland State University throughout multiple design and funding changes. When the City required a larger footprint, Swinerton provided budget impacts within 72 hours. This collaborative approach kept project estimates within a 2% variance from program development to final contract price over 18 months of preconstruction and allowed for priority scope to be added into the project when additional funding was received from the State of Oregon.

02. Vertical Integration Provides Certainty

“Vertical integration—sourcing, manufacturing, delivery, installation—de-risks projects. That’s a major value proposition Swinerton and Timberlab offer together,” Silva emphasizes.

The team’s advanced integrated modeling capabilities create predictable installation, securing the shortest path from permit to completion that often reduces project durations by up to 20%.

Live Oak Bank Building 4

With less than one inch of tolerance in some of the interior soffits, ensuring quality and accuracy was essential. While up against the CLT fabrication clock, the plans underwent multiple revisions to ensure the MEP systems remained functional, aesthetically pleasing, and would coordinate seamlessly with the openings that were being modeled and fabricated into the CLT panels. Even with the complex exposed MEP infrastructure, Live Oak Bank Building 4 was completed three months faster than an adjacent steel building.

03. Design, Engineering, and Fabrication Under One Roof Maximizes Value

Timberlab’s fabrication shops and laminators allow for rapid iteration, value engineering, and refinement when site conditions or detailing challenges arise. This capability means that design modifications or field conditions can be addressed quickly without the delays and coordination challenges that impede projects using multiple fragmented vendors.

It also allows Swinerton and Timberlab to develop comprehensive studies to determine where mass timber is the best solution for less-than-ideal site conditions, sustainability targets, or other client goals that present challenges for concrete or steel.

Cal Poly Humboldt Engineering and Technology Building

The extremely high seismicity of the Engineering & Technology Building site, coupled with a perched water table, high annual precipitation, and previous landfill conditions, made any deep foundation designs challenging. Swinerton and Timberlab presented mass timber as a solution to the site challenges early in the project. The final building design and program are responsive to the weather, groundwater conditions, and local architectural landscape.

04. Intentional Sourcing Creates Flexibility and Diversity

Timberlab is not locked into one timbermill or one production method. The team reaches across a robust network of supplier relationships depending on lead time, price, and capacity, as well as suppliers who respond to project values. In many cases, clients and project teams can let buildings tell their own stories through the “where and how” of wood fiber sourcing. Timberlab’s recent experience sourcing tribal fiber, working with small forestry owners, and implementing forest restoration wood has created sourcing channels that did not exist before. This flexibility allows teams to de-risk projects when schedules or market conditions shift, as well as infusing projects with additional value for clients who are invested in where their timber came from.

This intentional sourcing approach has been undertaken on over six projects to date: transparently tracking wood fiber sourcing in support of project goals.

Confidential Research and Development Facility

The new three-story mass timber research and development facility includes over 225,000 square feet of total building area, with a mix of research and development labs and administrative office spaces, a large café and kitchen, a fitness room, breakout spaces, and installation of owner-specialized lab equipment.

When Swinerton and Timberlab began sustainable material sourcing together with consultant Sustainable Northwest, they were able to work with a tribal wood advisory workgroup to reflect the client’s desire to source wood fiber from Tribal lands for the project’s mass timber. Connecting with eight different Tribes and First Nations during procurement, 100% of the wood fiber in the glulam columns and beams (1,000,000 board feet) and 15% of the wood fiber in the CLT (308,500 board feet) were transparently tracked in the supply chain. Tribes were invited to visit the site during construction, and the client is now developing lasting ways for the Tribes to tell their story through the building for generations to come.

05. Advancement Furthers the Entire Industry

As less-experienced teams enter the market, poorly executed mass timber projects could harm mass timber’s reputation as an innovative and customizable solution. Swinerton and Timberlab’s vertical integration ensures quality, clean detailing, and seamless installation—all of which protects clients and the system.

Additionally, as Swinerton and Timberlab’s mass timber projects push new boundaries, cutting-edge conversations are opening up. Building repeat success with early adopters such as the public/civic, education, and office market sectors has given Swinerton and Timberlab the knowledge and experience to explore new methodologies and concepts for markets where mass timber is less common, such as healthcare. The team’s expertise has been a catalyst for industry-wide evolution, code changes, sourcing strategies, and more—all to accelerate the mainstream adoption of mass timber in the US commercial construction market. “Impossible” projects begin to pencil, challenges become successes, and the industry moves in new, exciting directions.

For example, Swinerton and Timberlab supported a comprehensive study, “Mass Timber Hospital: The Future of Healthcare,” that is spearheading mass timber conversations in the healthcare industry. Through a white paper proof of concept geared toward a C-suite audience, the study thoughtfully considers how mass timber answers fifteen different critical questions from code compliance and systems integration to acoustics and infection control.

Portland International Airport Terminal Core Redevelopment Mass Timber Roof

Totaling an impressive 400,000 square feet, the new roof at Portland International Airport is comprised of 80-foot glulam beams and 35,000 pieces of intricately fabricated lattice. This marks one of the largest mass timber projects ever undertaken.