OREGON CITY, OREGON / ACCESS Newswire / October 29, 2025 / The Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) and the USDA Forest Service (USDA) announced the winners of the 2025 Mass Timber Competition: Building Sustainable Schools. This year's competition awarded $1.8 million to support projects that accelerate the adoption of mass timber in the United States, with a dedicated focus on K-12 educational environments.

The winning projects demonstrate how biophilic design with mass timber can strengthen academic performance, improve teacher and staff well-being, and create healthier, more resilient learning spaces for students. This marks the third cycle of the competition, which has already advanced a range of innovative mass timber projects nationwide.

"Mass timber is a revolutionary building material-and in schools, a pathway to better learning and stronger communities. By integrating the principles of biophilia into K-12 learning environments, these winning projects will demonstrate how wood can support academic achievement, teacher satisfaction, and long-term sustainability. The SLB is proud to help accelerate adoption where it matters most: in the classrooms that shape our future," said Cees de Jager, President and CEO of the SLB.

"Sustainably harvested timber plays a critical role in improving the health and resilience of America's forests, while providing the raw material for schools that inspire and uplift. By linking responsible forest management with the needs of K-12 communities, these projects show how the benefits of mass timber reach from our forests directly into classrooms - where students, educators, and families all stand to gain," added John Crockett, USDA Forest Service Deputy Chief for State, Private, and Tribal Forestry.

This year's winning proposals included:

Cleveland High School

Portland, Oregon - Project Team: Portland Public Schools, Mahlum Architects, Studio Petretti Architects, KPFF Structural Engineering, Code Bird Consulting, Skanska

Cleveland High School sits on a small urban site that has filled up as the school has grown over the years, leaving little open or outdoor space for students to socialize or even eat lunch. The new 1,700 student Cleveland High School will consist of two four-story towers surrounding a courtyard that provides outdoor space for learning, socializing, and athletics, and connected by a mass timber framed bridge. Most of the classrooms and a variety of other spaces will be located in a Type-IV HT mass timber structure, with acoustic DLT (ADLT) floors eliminating the need for extensive acoustic tile ceilings in classrooms.

New Lawton Elementary School

Ann Arbor, Michigan - Project Team: Ann Arbor Public Schools, Gilbane Building Company, Quinn Evans Architects, Brix Corporation

This new elementary school will deliver a 21st-century learning environment with strong indoor-outdoor connections, Passive House performance, and US-CHPS "Verified Leader" certification. Net-zero-ready and all-electric, the project emphasizes wellness, daylighting, and sustainability while preserving the site's iconic legacy oak tree. The superstructure is designed to maximize carbon reduction through a primarily mass timber system, with CLT floor and roof decks and glulam beams, girders, and columns. Exposed timber will define key spaces such as the library, café, and gathering heart, providing both structural efficiency and biophilic impact.

New Central Maui School

Waikapu, Hawaii - Project Team: Hawaii School Facilities Authority, Hawaii Off Grid, MKThink, R.T. Tanaka Engineers, Mo'olelo Group

Addressing urgent community needs following the Lahaina wildfire and regional population growth, this new middle school will initially serve 300-600 students, expanding over time to 1,150. Designed as a community school, its facilities will serve both students and the broader community, with the cafetorium doubling as an emergency shelter. The structural system is planned as slab-on-grade with glulam posts and beams supporting CLT, NLT, or DLT roof framing and select partition walls. By deploying a comprehensive mass timber system across classroom and communal spaces, the project both reduces carbon and showcases wood's role in resilient community infrastructure.

Whittier Elementary School

Washington, D.C. - Project Team: Hord Coplan Macht, DC Public Schools, MCN, CMTA, SKA Engineers

This net-zero renovation and expansion of Whittier will more than double the school's space while preserving its historic main building. The mass timber addition will include a library, STEM and art classrooms, a gym, a cafeteria, and outdoor green space. With support from the competition, the project team is exploring substituting the originally planned steel framing with CLT and glulam systems supplied. Timber would be featured in highly visible learning spaces to integrate with Whittier's sustainability curriculum, while span optimization and cost modeling are being used to confirm its viability as an economical and educationally enriching choice.

About the Competition

The 2025 Mass Timber Competition sought to highlight the unique advantages of mass timber in K-12 educational projects, including classrooms, libraries, athletic facilities, daycare centers, and vocational training centers. Eligible applicants included U.S.-based for-profit firms, nonprofit organizations, school districts, local governments, and Native American tribal governments.

WoodWorks, a nonprofit staffed with structural engineers, architects, and construction experts, conducted the technical screening and evaluation of entries. Finalists were selected by an independent jury representing architecture, structural engineering, construction, education, and sustainability. The jury included:

• Suni Dillard, Sustainability Leader at HMFH Architects

• John Hand, Associate Principal at Arup

• Esther Liu, President and CEO of LSW Architects

• Catie Ryan, Associate Partner at Terrapin Bright Green

• Craig Schiller, Executive Director of the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS)

• Heather Stegner, COO of the American Wood Council

• Andrew Waugh, Founder and Director of Waugh Thistleton Architects

• Antony Wood, Professor at Illinois Institute of Technology

Winning projects exemplify how mass timber can deliver scalable, repeatable models for educational facilities across the U.S. Award recipients have pledged to share lessons learned-including cost analyses, life cycle assessments, and design insights-with the broader construction and education communities.

Media Contact

For images and more information about the winning projects, contact: info@softwoodlumberboard.org.

About the Softwood Lumber Board

The Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) is an industry-funded initiative established to promote the uses as well as the environmental and economic benefits of softwood lumber products. Programs and initiatives supported by the SLB, including American Wood Council, Think Wood, WoodWorks, and SLB Education focus on increasing the demand for lumber products in the United States. For more information, visit www.softwoodlumberboard.org.

About the USDA Forest Service

Established in 1905, the Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is the nation's foremost federal forestry organization. The agency is a world leader in forest research, providing leadership in the sustainable management, conservation, use, and stewardship of natural and cultural resources on national forests and grasslands in the United States.

Dedicated Forest Service employees manage the National Forest System, which consists of 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering 193 million acres in 43 states, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The agency's renowned fire management organization provides critical expertise in making communities and infrastructure safer. Moreover, the agency helps communities; state, local, and tribal governments; forest industries; and private forest landowners improve conditions in both urban and rural areas. In total, the Forest Service helps to steward about 900 million forested acres in the U.S., including 130 million acres in urban areas, which most Americans now call home.

SOURCE: Softwood Lumber Board