Project Description
Although designers took a straightforward, conceptual approach for this modern interpretation of a wood box, the result is anything but ordinary. Working in collaboration with Idaho wood industry partners, the design team expressed locally-produced wood materials throughout, including FSC- and SFI-certified dimension framing lumber, cedar siding, engineered wood I-joists and glulam beams. They even harvested Western Larch from the University of Idaho’s experimental forest, dried it in University kilns and milled it for the flooring. Wood-based cellulose provides insulation while exposed T&G wood decking and glulam beams provide surface variation outside the walls to disperse sound and avoid amplification or resonance. Interior walls are clad with veneered wood panels, each of which highlights a particular Idaho wood species. The 2,130-square-foot structure contains a classroom, three faculty offices, a nursery sales office and a social gathering space.