Sugar maples from Maine are raising the roof in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, literally.  

In a first-of-its-kind building, six large sugar maples, each 30 inches in diameter, are part of the primary structural support system for the new two-story Children’s Museum of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Instead of using conventional steel and concrete, the museum is built with responsibly sourced mass timber, including round-timber columns, joist trusses, and girder trusses. 

“This is what we were aiming for in funding the Town of Ashland through our Future Forest Economy Initiative to position itself and the Maine Woods to take advantage of market demand for structural round timber products in the northeastern US,” said Joe Short, vice president of the Northern Forest Center. “Their project built a 5-million sales pipeline, proving that there’s strong market demand for structural round timber that the northern Maine forest is well suited to supply.” 

Structural Round Timber is a low carbon, mass-timber building product made from tree trunks and major branches that can be used as an alternative to steel to provide building structure. It requires no adhesives and minimal processing, and existing facilities can be readily adapted to produce structural round timber from Northern Forest timber.   

“The completed children’s museum is a wonderful way to show off the creative architectural possibilities of using structural round timber and bring to life the story of how this kind of construction provides so many carbon benefits,” said Short.