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The eight wood buildings and structures highlighted here are winners of the 2013 National Wood Design Awards, presented at the San Francisco Bay Area Wood Solutions Fair. They are “eye-popping” for different reasons: a 100-foot-plus glulam roof, a five-over-two wood housing strategy, interiors made from campus and donated trees, and a kinetic sculpture built from a 1897 schooner. The roundup is a historical snapshot, not a current ranking or a statement about each project’s present condition.
The figures and descriptions below come from the original Building Design + Construction roundup by WoodWorks. Costs, areas, bed counts and award labels are reported as published in 2013; they are not current estimates or independently comparable performance data.
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| Name | Best for | Key spec | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| LeMay – America’s Car Museum | Long-span heavy-timber structure | 165,000 sq ft; roof span over 100 ft; $60 million reported project cost | November 2026 |
| David and Lucile Packard Foundation headquarters | Wood-centered workplace and courtyard design | 49,000 sq ft; LEED Platinum reported | November 2026 |
| Central Oregon Community College Science Center | Regional, certified-wood institutional design | 46,000 sq ft; $12.5 million; Earth Advantage Commercial Gold reported | November 2026 |
| University of Washington West Campus Student Housing | Multi-story light-frame housing | Nearly 1,700 beds; five wood-frame stories over two concrete stories | November 2026 |
| Duke School | Exposed wood structure in a school | 42,100 sq ft; $5 million; glulam and wood frame | November 2026 |
| University of Oregon Ford Alumni Center | Reclaimed and provenance-rich interiors | 60,000 sq ft; $28.3 million; donated, fallen and reclaimed wood elements | November 2026 |
| Wawona Sculpture | Reclaimed wood and digital fabrication | 56 ft tall; about 5,000 lb of wood from a 1897 schooner | November 2026 |
| Rio Roca Chapel | Small-scale traditional wood expression | 1,080 sq ft; seats up to 50; Southern Yellow Pine and red oak | November 2026 |
Prices checked November 2026.
All figures and award categories in this table are historical values reported in the 2013 source.
What were these eight projects, and why were they selected?
They were the eight winners featured in WoodWorks’ 2013 National Wood Design Awards recap. The categories covered commercial, green, institutional, multi-story, school, interior, engineering and traditional applications, so the list is best read as a portfolio of wood’s roles rather than a league table.
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Across the projects, wood functions as primary structure, a component of a hybrid structural system, exterior or interior finish, a source of visual identity, or the material of an installation. Some projects use new glulam or light-frame members; others foreground certified, local, donated or reclaimed material. The source does not provide a common life-cycle assessment, a standardized cost-per-square-foot comparison, or a present-day status check.
How did LeMay – America’s Car Museum make a roof span more than 100 feet?
LeMay’s Tacoma museum used a large glulam roof system that spans more than 100 feet and extends over 300 feet in length. That combination of scale and visible timber is why it received the Commercial Wood Design Award.
Large Architecture designed the 165,000-square-foot, $60 million museum, while Western Wood Structures designed the roof system. The beams were panelized on the ground and then erected, a sequence that moved substantial assembly work out of the air and into a controlled staging process. The article reports an installed roof cost of $41.80 per square foot and more than $600,000 in project savings. Those are 2013 project figures, not a current bid benchmark.
The source also says the timber roof qualified as Type IV Heavy Construction, avoiding additional fire protection. That is a project-specific code outcome, not a universal promise that heavy timber removes fire-protection requirements. The important design lesson is the coordination between engineered glulam members, panelization and the applicable building-code path.
What makes the Packard Foundation headquarters a wood-focused green building?
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation headquarters in Los Altos organized a 49,000-square-foot workplace around a wooded courtyard, with operable doors that connect occupied spaces to that central landscape. It won the Green Building with Wood Design Award.
EHDD used wood on both the exterior and interior as part of the project’s architectural strategy. The source associates the completed headquarters with a LEED Platinum rating. That should be understood as this project’s reported certification result, not as evidence that specifying wood by itself guarantees any rating. The courtyard, operable openings and material continuity show how wood can support an environmental and experiential brief at the same time.
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For designers, the notable move is not simply “add wood.” It is to make structure, envelope expression, daylight, ventilation and landscape read as one composition. The article does not provide an energy model, carbon calculation or post-occupancy study, so those outcomes should not be inferred from the award description.
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How did the Central Oregon Community College Science Center connect wood to place?
The 46,000-square-foot, $12.5 million science center in Bend received the Institutional Wood Design Award for treating wood as a contemporary continuation of the campus and region’s building tradition.
Yost Grube Hall Architecture made renewable resources and certified wood products project priorities. The source reports an Earth Advantage Commercial Gold rating. In this example, material selection carries cultural meaning as well as technical intent: wood references the regional landscape while supporting a modern science facility.
The award description does not quantify how much certified wood was used, compare its cost with alternatives, or document operational savings. What it does show is a procurement strategy in which certification and renewability are considered during design rather than added as decorative claims at the end.
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What was unusual about the University of Washington West Campus housing strategy?
The University of Washington project assembled nearly 1,700 beds across three residential halls and two apartment buildings, with mixed-use amenities, by combining five stories of light wood-frame construction over two concrete stories.
Mahlum designed the campus precinct, which won the Multi-Story Wood Design Award. The source attributes the approach to a Seattle Building Code exception that allowed the five-over-two configuration. Concrete supplied the lower portion while light-frame wood supplied the upper residential levels, illustrating how a hybrid system can respond to height, use and code constraints.
The article also attributes budget, construction-time, carbon and local-material benefits to the project, but it gives no quantified comparison with an all-concrete or all-steel alternative. Those claims therefore belong to the project’s reported rationale, not to a measured industry-wide conclusion. The practical takeaway is to investigate the jurisdiction’s adopted code and exceptions early; a strategy permitted in Seattle in this project cannot automatically be transferred to another city.
How did Duke School use exposed wood as both structure and teaching environment?
Duke School in Durham is a 42,100-square-foot, $5 million project by DTW Architects & Planners. It received the Wood School Design Award for making glulam, wood framing and roof decking visible rather than concealing them behind finishes.
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The source describes locally sourced renewable materials and the carbon stored in wood products as parts of the sustainability strategy. Exposed structure also gives classrooms and shared spaces a legible construction story: students can see beams, decking and connections as part of the building they occupy.
These are design intentions reported for the school, not a quantified carbon accounting or a guarantee of educational outcomes. The project demonstrates a useful distinction between using wood structurally and expressing that structure architecturally. A school can do both, but the detailing, durability and maintenance requirements still need project-specific resolution.
Why is the Ford Alumni Center’s interior material history so distinctive?
The University of Oregon Ford Alumni Center in Eugene won the Interior Beauty of Wood Design Award because its wood is tied to specific people, places and events, not just to a species label.
Opsis Architecture designed the 60,000-square-foot, $28.3 million center. Alumni donated some interior wood. Red oak came from a campus tree that fell on a provost’s car; cedar came from a tree that had stood near the university’s oldest building; and stair treads were reclaimed from an Oregon business. Douglas fir and madrone represented regional resources.
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This provenance gives ordinary interior elements a narrative function. A stair, wall or panel can become a record of institutional memory when the source of its material is documented and interpreted. The article does not state the volume of each species, the processing cost, or the chain-of-custody procedure, so the examples should not be treated as a quantified reuse model. They do, however, show how salvage and donations can be integrated into a major public interior without making the material feel accidental.
How was the Wawona Sculpture engineered from a dismantled schooner?
Wawona is a 56-foot kinetic sculpture in Seattle made from more than 200 reclaimed Douglas fir boards taken from a dismantled schooner built in 1897. Arup Engineers designed it, and the project received the Wood Design Engineering Award.
The source reports approximately 5,000 pounds of wood. The suspended, interactive work was engineered to withstand earthquakes, and the article presents it as an example of digital design-to-construction. Here wood is neither a conventional building frame nor a finish package: it is the principal material of a moving public installation whose geometry, suspension and seismic behavior had to be coordinated.
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Reusing historic boards also changes the design process. Every piece carries an existing size, condition and visual history, so digital modeling can help turn irregular reclaimed stock into a controlled assembly. The source does not publish the sculpture’s calculations, motion limits or maintenance schedule; those details should not be assumed.
What makes Rio Roca Chapel a modern example of traditional wood use?
Rio Roca Chapel in Palo Pinto County, Texas, is the smallest project in the group at 1,080 square feet, with seating for up to 50 people. Maurice Jennings + Walter Jennings Architecture designed it to express a traditional material palette while allowing wood and steel to work together structurally.
Southern Yellow Pine serves the structural and exterior elements. Clear red oak appears inside, including built-in pews and lectern details. The project won the Traditional Use of Wood Design Award, not because it copies a historic building, but because familiar species and craft-centered details are organized in a contemporary chapel.
Its scale is instructive. A persuasive wood building does not need a huge span or a large budget; proportion, tactile finish and the relationship between structure and worship space can carry the design. The article provides no current cost, durability assessment or occupancy update, so the chapel’s reported dimensions and material choices are the reliable scope of this summary.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What design lessons connect all eight projects?
First, “wood building” is not one construction system. LeMay uses long-span glulam; Washington uses light-frame wood above concrete; Duke exposes glulam and decking; Packard and Oregon use wood as a major architectural finish; Wawona treats reclaimed boards as a kinetic installation; and Rio Roca combines wood with steel. Choosing the right role is more useful than asking whether a project is simply wood or not wood.
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Third, code and delivery strategy matter as much as appearance. LeMay’s ground-panelized erection and reported Type IV classification, plus Seattle’s five-over-two exception, show that construction sequencing and jurisdiction-specific rules can determine whether an ambitious wood concept is practical.
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Finally, the awards do not create a standardized performance ranking. The 2013 article gives project areas, selected costs and qualitative benefits, but no common carbon accounting, operational-energy dataset or current-condition survey. Use the examples as design precedents and questions for a project team—not as proof that one wood system is universally cheaper, faster or greener.
How should a current project team use this 2013 roundup?
Start by identifying the intended role of wood: primary structure, hybrid structure, envelope, interior finish or installation. Then define the constraints that shaped the precedents—span, height, occupancy, seismic exposure, fire and building-code pathway, available species, certification or salvage requirements, and erection sequence.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesNext, separate reported precedent from current verification. The museum’s $41.80-per-square-foot roof cost and $600,000-plus savings are historical; they should not be inserted into a 2026 estimate. Likewise, a code exception cited for Seattle housing must be checked against the code edition and jurisdiction governing a new project.
Finally, ask for evidence appropriate to the decision: engineered design for structural claims, documented sourcing for certified or reclaimed material, and project-specific cost and carbon analysis. The eight award winners are valuable because they show many ways to make wood consequential; they are not substitutes for today’s calculations, approvals and procurement records.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these projects still in operation today?
The 2013 roundup does not report present-day ownership, condition or use for any of the eight projects. Their award status and the dimensions, costs and descriptions above should therefore be read as historical information from the publication date.
Does a heavy-timber roof always avoid extra fire protection?
No. The source says the LeMay roof qualified as Type IV Heavy Construction and avoided additional fire protection under the project’s code approach. Whether a different building can do the same depends on its jurisdiction, code edition, construction type and detailed design.
Can the reported project costs be used to price a new wood building?
Not reliably. The costs are 2013 figures for individual projects with different scopes, locations and structural systems, and the article supplies no standardized cost comparison. A current estimate needs local pricing, updated labor and material rates, and a defined scope.
What is the difference between certified, local and reclaimed wood in these examples?
Certified wood refers to a sourcing or certification priority, local wood refers to regional availability, and reclaimed wood has a previous life in another structure or object. The roundup presents each as a distinct project choice; none of the labels by itself describes the material’s full structural, environmental or cost performance.
Where can I read the original award roundup?
The complete 2013 feature is available from Building Design + Construction in its article “8 eye-popping wood building projects.” It is the source for the project descriptions and figures summarized here.
