Forest to Façade: Developing Seismic + Energy Mass Timber Commercial Façade Retrofits
Research Team:
Mark Fretz, Gustavo Fernandez Orozco Orozco, Andrew Loia, Ethan Bloom, Jason Stenson, Dale Northcutt, William Silva, Jon Smith, Edward Running, Alen Mahić, Siobhan Rockcastle, Judith Sheine, Andre Barbosa
Project Duration:
2021-2023
2021-2023
Design/ Research Advisory Groups and/or Partners:
Institute for Health in the Built Environment, Swinerton, FFA Architecture + Interiors
Does this Project Build on Previous Ones?
Yes – This builds on a 2020 Wood Innovations Grant Project developing retrofits for multi-family light frame timber structures.
Fretz, M., Stenson, J., O. Orozco, G. F., Narancic, P., Casey, F., Northcutt, D., Van Den Wymelenberg, K., Sheine, J., & Barbosa, A. R. (2023). Developing an Application for Mass Plywood Panels in Seismic and Energy Wall Retrofits. World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE 2023), 1034–1043. https://doi.org/10.52202/069179-0141
Institute for Health in the Built Environment. (2023). Forest to Facade: Developing an Application for Mass Plywood Panels in Seismic and Energy Wall Retrofits (p. 66). University of Oregon. https://buildhealth.uoregon.edu/institute-publications/
Orozco O., G.F., Barbosa, A.R., Fretz, M., Sheine, J., Stenson, J., Van Den Wymelenberg, K., Narancic, P., and Casey, F. (2023). Seismic and Energy Retrofit of Multifamily Light-Frame Timber Residential Buildings Using Mass Ply Panel (MPP) Wall Facade System, Proceedings of the 2023 World Conference on Timber Engineering, Oslo, Norway, pp 2669-2677. https://doi.org/10.52202/069179-03
Orozco, G., Barbosa, A. R., Fretz, M., Sheine, J., Stenson, J., Van Den Wymelenberg, K., Narancic, P., & Casey, F. (2023). Seismic and Energy Retrofit of Multifamily Light-Frame Timber Residential Buildings Using Mass Plywood Panel (MPP) Wall Façade System. World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE 2023), 2669–2677. https://doi.org/10.52202/069179-0350
Project Goal Statement
This project developed a mass timber facade system that could be utilized to retrofit low-rise commercial buildings (up to four story) to improve their energy efficiency, seismic, and operational resilience.
Introduction
The work addressed a multi-faceted problem facing existing low-rise buildings in the Pacific Northwest: many existing structures may not meet current evolving energy codes or current seismic codes, and undergoing extensive upgrades can be costly and material intensive. This project uses mass timber as a primary material for a façade system designed to simultaneously address energy efficiency, seismic, and operational resilience in existing commercial constructions.
Research Methods
The research team, which included both researchers from UO and OSU and industry partners from Swinerton and FFA Architecture + Interiors, designed an energy and seismic retrofit for an existing steel-frame commercial building in the Pacific Northwest. They used mass ply panels so that the façade could be incorporated into an updated lateral force resisting system featuring post-tensioned walls. They modelled a variety of construction processes and interior conditions, including illumination & solar gain, thermal envelope, moisture, and temperature in the baseline and retrofitted structures.
The building had recently undergone a conventional seismic retrofit, which enabled the researchers to compare their approach with standard methods in terms of cost. Swinerton completed a detailed cost model for the proposed retrofit.
Key Findings
The researchers used design strategies and materials intended to improve operational resilience on a variety of levels for this project. They found that their simulated approach improved metrics such as thermal resistance, daylight efficacy, and energy performance dramatically over code standard. In terms of cost, they predicted a substantial savings compared to building a new building built to similar seismic and energy efficiency standards.
Publications & Presentations (and/or Relevant Resources)
Fretz, M., Orozco, G. F. O., Loia, A., Bloom, E., Stenson, J., Northcutt, D., Silva, W., Smith, J., Running, E., Mahic, A., Rockcastle, S., Sheine, J., & Barbosa, A. R. (2025). Forest to façade: Using mass timber panels to retrofit low-rise commercial buildings to improve resilience. World Conference on Timber Engineering 2025, 2420–2429. https://doi.org/10.52202/080513-0295
Mark Fretz. (2025, November 4). Forest to Facade: Developing Seismic and Energy Mass Timber Commercial Facade Retrofits. 2025 Mass Timber Research & Design Innovation Symposium. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJS0OV2J8C4
Funding & Acknowledgements
TDI ARS