I like visiting the Lynn Valley suspension bridge in North Vancouver. It is not as commercial as its big sister - the Capilano bridge - yet it gives you the same thrill walking over it. It was even safe for the kids - apparently the deck got an overhaul last year. What I hadn't seen before was the new cafe and ranger station next to the parking lot. This is a nice pavilion featuring a combination of wood, glass and aluminum. Main features are the big, doubled-up and angled glulam columns and connections that use shear plates and possibly split rings. What was interesting to see was that although there is a good roof overhang (and all columns being sloped inward AND large trees surrounding the location), the two outermost glulams already show quite pronounced signs of weathering.

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I finally got around to updating this year's timber engineering and wood design related conferences. You can find the list here. If you want to submit any aditional conferences, please use the comment form at the bottom of the page.

If you are interested in learning more about innovative wood structures, environmental aspects of building with wood and general wood design, come to our symposium at UMass in November (1st-2nd). We at BMATWT are organizing this annual conference for the first time and are excited about a great international lineup of speakers.

AIA/CES credits will be available and this is a great event to network with future employers, research collaborators, industry representatives and others.

More information (including a program) is available at: http://www.woodstructuressymposium.com/

Hope to see you there!

A team from the ETH university library in Switzerland has digitized what they call the "Construction Memory of Switzerland" ("Baugedächtnis Schweiz Online" bzw. "Mémoire du bâti en Suisse online") - essentially two architecture and engineering magazines: tec21 and Tracés.

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It's award season (or rather trade fair season, which usually brings along some awards). Following up on my posting of the link to the North American Wood Design Award winners, here is now the result of the German Wood Design Awards. Although everything on the web page of the Deutscher Holzbaupreis 2007 is in German, there is a great PDF available for free download that illustrates all winners nicely.