ESPOO, FINLAND - Tall wood buildings proponent and famed architect Michael Green teamed with Finnish timber and panel maker Metsä Wood to redesign the iconic Empire State Building in in timber frame construction.
Part of Metsä Wood's Plan B campaign to educate the public on the importance of wood in construction, the company says that wood should always be considered as a serious option in everything from design to construction and also in buildings in which wood hasn't been previously used. The Plan B campaign re-engineers famous buildings - another project redid the Roman Coliseum - using engineered beams and panel instead of steel, stone and concrete. Metsä produces laminated veneer lumber - LVL - among many other high-strength wood construction lumber and panel products.
Green and his architectural design firm MGA created the design and construction plans for the wooden version of the Empire State Building.
“We designed a skyscraper using Metsä Wood’s Kerto LVL engineered wood as the main material from floors to column spacing,” Green said. “I believe that the future belongs to tall wooden buildings. Significant advancements in engineered wood and mass timber products have created a new vision for what is possible for safe, tall, urban wood buildings. The challenge now is to change society’s perception of what’s possible. In fact, this is the first new way to build a skyscraper in the last 100 years."
Metsä says one of the notable features of its Kerto-S is that the grains run longitudinally through all the layers. The finished panel is cross-cut and rip-sawn to order.
Metsä Wood’s Kerto LVL engineered wood as the main material from floors to column spacing
The laminated timber projected for the Empire State Building design was part of Metsä Wood’s “Plan B” campaign, which highlights engineered timbers as a serious option in everything from design to construction.
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