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TallWood Design Institute credits state funding with leveraging private and federal investment in mass‑timber manufacturing
Summary
The TallWood Design Institute’s director told the HECC education subcommittee state support since 2015 enabled more than $50 million in leveraged applied research and helped attract large mass‑timber manufacturing investments, including facilities worth tens of millions of dollars.
Judith Schein, professor of architecture at the University of Oregon and director of design for the TallWood Design Institute, told the Ways and Means education subcommittee on May 1 that state support has positioned Oregon as a national center for engineered timber research, manufacturing and construction.
Schein said state funding since 2015 enabled the TallWood Design Institute — a collaboration of Oregon State University’s Colleges of Forestry and Engineering and the University of Oregon’s College of Design — to leverage about $50 million in additional funds for applied research and product development. She described recent private and federal investments, including a $40 million mass plywood manufacturing facility and a $125 million mass‑timber manufacturing and fabrication facility under construction in Millersburg by Timberlab, and an Economic Development Administration grant of about $41.4 million supporting an Oregon mass‑timber coalition that includes universities, the Port of Portland, the Oregon Department of Forestry and Business Oregon.
The committee asked Ms. Schein to submit additional material in writing; her spoken testimony emphasized the role of coordinated state support in attracting manufacturing investment and expanding markets for Oregon wood products.
No appropriation vote occurred at the hearing; funding for TallWood and related statewide timber R&D will be considered in the HECC budget context and SB 5525 deliberations.
