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Thursday, April 2, 2026
Opportunities in Post-Disaster Recovery Construction
Oregon Ballroom 204Firehalls, Fast-Tracked: Mass Timber’s Next Municipal Market
Firehalls are emerging as a prime new application for mass timber — where speed, durability, energy performance, and occupant wellness matter as much as cost. It’s somewhat ironic that firehalls are emerging as a new and growing market for mass timber construction, as fire resistance is typically one of the first concerns people raise when wood is mentioned as a structural material.
For most of modern building history, “fireproofing” meant not using wood — particularly for essential services like firehalls, which must meet strict post-disaster and fire-resistance requirements. The idea of housing fire trucks and crews inside a wood building seems counterintuitive at first — almost a contradiction in terms. Yet that irony is what makes this development so interesting as mass timber firehalls actually become a powerful demonstration of trust and progress, showing that material long viewed as vulnerable to fire is now being used to protect against it. It symbolizes a turning point: mass timber has matured from a perceived risk to a proven solution for resilient, low-carbon public infrastructure.
Element5 has completed three firehalls to date with two more currently under development. We’ll unpack these examples and will speak to why this is a “hot” emerging market.
Public Safety and Mass Timber: Making a Case for Resiliency and Well-being
Resilient design for climate involves creating buildings, infrastructure, and communities that can withstand, adapt to, and recover from climate change impacts like extreme weather, sea-level rise, power outages, and other crises. Mass timber design and construction in Essential Facilities is rare.
In this discussion panelists will explain the challenges and value proposition mass timber design creates for the design of essential facilities. Presented with a challenging site with poor soil conditions and Category IV structural design criteria, the panel will discuss important design drivers brought to the design of a Police Station for the City of Hillsboro.
The project and process will share how the choice of mass timber as a structural material was a driving factor in the success of the project for climate resiliency, user well-being, and emergency use resiliency. Comparative value analysis of steel, concrete, and mass timber led to the selection of the structural system for the police station at the City of Hillsboro.
Understanding the demands of an Essential Facility, the panel will explain how mass timber can impact the approach to resilient design and constructability for Essential Facilities including how mass timber in the end was a better value choice.
