
The construction of a massive wooden roof for the new main terminal at Portland International Airport (PDX) in Oregon, US, is currently being put together.
The 392,000sqft mass timber roof will be disassembled and reassembled piece by piece in 2022 as the crown jewel of PDX’s US$2 billion expansion. Each of the main modules of the roof measures 120ft by 110ft, with the roof reaching 54ft at its peak. It will include large round skylights and a ceiling decorated with wood lattice.
Glue-laminated beams for the $100 million roofing project were manufactured by Zip-O Laminators, using 3.3 million board feet of Douglas fir. The beams were transported to Timberlab of Portland where CNC machining centers were used to shape the edges.
Sharon van der Meulen, a partner of ZGF architects, said: “The roof design was inspired by the forests of the Pacific Northwest and the feeling you get while walking through the woods, the experience of light filtering through the trees, and the protection of the tree canopy.”

Source: Woodworking Network