Melissa and Chris were invited to visit Nordic Structures’ sawmill and manufacturing facilities, Chantiers Chibougamau, in Chibougamau, Quebec, Canada. Nordic (Structures) is the mass timber design assist for Eric and Wendy Schmidt Hall at Princeton University project which will be finishing up construction documents in early 2024. Nordic provided this tour for the project design team, which included colleagues from Princeton University, Frederick Fisher & Partners, Shepley Bulfinch, Skanska, and Fast + Epp. The tour included the entire production process from the harvested timber log’s being taken off the trailer to finished product. The most fascinating part of the tour was witnessing the production of glulam beams and columns and cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels, as this is the gravity structural system at Princeton’s Schmidt Hall project. Observing and learning about the production in person, the precision of the CNC machining, and seeing the care taken by the woodworkers at Chantiers Chibougamau, resulted in an excellent tour.
Nordic produces spruce-pine-fir (SPF) lumber which is harvested primarily from black spruce but also includes balsam fir and jack pine. The Chantiers Chibougamau sawmill is about 1,000 miles north of HFA’s office in Towson and is primarily known for (wood) I-joist production, but also dimensional lumber, pulp, glulam, and cross-laminated timber. As if the tour wasn’t enough, Chris “co-piloted” part of the design team from Chibougamau back to Montreal.
Thank you to Nordic Structures, Chantiers Chibougamau, and Princeton University for making this trip possible and an incredible experience!
To learn more about the project, Eric and Wendy Schmidt Hall at Princeton University, click here.
To learn more about Nordic Structures, click here.
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