View the Agenda
Book a Building Tour
Book Your Exhibit Space
Explore the Exhibit Hall
Become a Sponsor Today
View Sponsors & Partners
Call for Content
Purchase Report
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Mass Timber Case Study: Deep Dive Beyond Office (Affordable Housing, P3, Vertical Additions, etc.)
Oregon Ballroom 201Content curated by ULI Northwest and the ULI Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability.
Moderator:
Mass Timber in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Facilities
United Therapeutics’ most recent development is a 196,000 square-foot pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, designed to achieve zero embodied and operational carbon. It features cGMP cleanrooms, a warehouse, refrigerated storage, laboratories, a central utility plant, and offices.
This facility is Type VB construction, with hybrid mass timber and steel structure, timber curtain walls and natural siding — all of which are atypical in pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities. The design underscores the client’s environmental goals while adhering to regulatory requirements. Early collaboration with Nordic in a design-assist capacity facilitated the design of efficient structural systems that aligned with the GC’s construction schedule.
This collaboration helped the project team navigate a 10% cost reduction effort during design, preserving the mass timber structure, and maintaining production throughput.
Despite being early in construction, the project has yielded valuable insights, including that larger structural spans beneficial for manufacturing can lead to shrinkage and creep exceeding those of conventional steel structures.
Organic construction materials such as mass timber are not typically utilized in cGMP facilities. WARP10 exemplifies a groundbreaking approach to mass timber construction, setting a precedent for other biotech companies to follow with a unified vision and strategic partnerships.
