This is Forest to Frame, where we explore how restoring forests creates beautiful spaces. A podcast dedicated to conversations with industry leaders, shaping the future of the forest industry. And now, here's your host, Russ Vaagen Hey everybody, Russ again for the Forest to Frame podcast. This episode, I wanna talk a little bit about my recent trip to Boston to be part of the AIA National Convention, which is the American Institute of Architects. That's the association, if you will, of architects from around the country that get together and they have I had never been, not an architect, but we've been involved. I was actually asked by Rockwool, the company that does rock-based insulation materials. They insulate buildings and we use them a lot in our buildings, or I guess they are used in a lot of buildings that we're part of because we don't always spec the insulation, they just attach to our mass timber. and we had been part of a project in Michigan, the DNR, Department of Natural Resources in Michigan, Newberry, Michigan, exactly, up in the Upper Peninsula, and it's a beautiful mass timber building, and I had the chance to talk with Anna Anderson from Lord X Sergeant Architects, and then Sandra Lupien from Michigan State University. She runs their mass timber program there. And we presented on the project and everything that went along with that. And it was very well attended, a lot of interest in mass timber and how it all goes together. but it was really interesting to just be a part of, I don't know, 10,000 architects or something like that. It was a large group. And I was also able to take part in the awards assembly or awards gala, if you will. I think it was actually called the gala evening. And it was a, you know, formal, you know, dinner party and it's where they give all the yearly national awards and we were part of a project with Miller Hall Architects that actually I helped bring them into this project. It's for Matz Place and the Matz Place Foundation and Andy Barrett who's also involved with us have introduced me to the Matz Place Foundation and we started building these mass timber units for ALS inspired patients and their families. And Matt and Teresa Wild, that's the Matt's Place Foundation, I guess he's the co-founder and the mascot and everything else, but Matt's an incredible guy. He's a veteran, a US Marine, came down with ALS and it just went downhill as far as his motor skills for a long time. really persevered and done a lot since that's happened. And he's created a foundation with his wife, Teresa, and they are doing incredible things. And so we partnered up with a number of folks to build the first Matt's place, which is a house that uses the bulk and heavy I don't know, I guess the strength of mass timber to attach things to and build a really open, beautiful environment for people that have to be in a motorized chair. And it's also important to note that Matt and Teresa wanted to have this built not just for the person that's affected with ALS, not just for their caregiver, but also for the family. And so it was designed so it had some separate rooms so the children could still carry on with their lives. It's a heavy thing that happens. And so that would not have been possible to figure out unless you're working with somebody that's actually living with ALS. So they, the project got nominated and it was awarded. And so Brian Court and I from Miller Hall Architects accepted the award and it was very humbling to be up there with all these architects and all these great designs and to have our small piece of that in there and recognized, had a lot of great conversations with a lot of architects. And I can tell you that mass timber is on the minds of a lot of people, even though the building industry and just the building inertia has kind of slowed down over these last two years. There's a lot of projects coming with mass timber. And I think You know, just recently, the Department of Defense announced that they're going to be pushing forward with more mass timber designs because of a lot of the blast testing that was done a few years ago. And so we're looking forward to collaborating with folks on that to do some more projects with the Department of Defense and government contracting in general, because we think it's a great place for mass timber to be used, especially when we're using it from federal forests. What better way to use our federal forests or government forests than for government projects. It's a really good use of resources and we want to highlight the connection between restoring these forests from wildfire, removing that pollution, removing that environmental problem and replacing it with healthy forests and taking the byproduct of that and putting it into buildings. But if we do it with Department of Defense buildings, which they build a lot of buildings, both in the US and abroad, we would just be happy to be part of that. And we think it's a great story. So yeah, I just, I wanted to share my experience there. Boston, first time I'd been to Boston, it's a beautiful city, a lot of history there. And there's been a lot of changes there and a lot of investments. Where the conference center is, there's just beautiful hotels. And apparently that was a kind of rundown part of Boston in years past. And so it's, it was great, it was great to be part of a few things there and to see that mass timber is relevant among architects, and I would say that we've gone from people not knowing what it is to everyone pretty much knowing what mass timber is, and then some people just Really talking about making their first leap their first project in a mass timber so we look forward to collaborating with those folks when that happens, but it was an exciting trip, we were honored to be part of the math place foundation project and getting the award from a just shows that. that it was a very worthwhile project, not just to the group locally, but beyond. And that was actually Mats Place 2.0. And we're working on Mats Place 3.0, which I think is even gonna be, it's gonna do more things to expand how we can build not only with mass timber, but also for beyond just ADA and wheelchair accessible actually designed for the kind of life that somebody needs to live with whatever ailment they have, whether it's memory care or, you know, full motorized chair accessibility and everything that goes with that. And I'd just like to say thanks to Matt and Teresa for all the work you guys have done and allowing us to be part of it. And we hope we change lives for the better. So with that, we'll call it quits on this episode of Forest of Frame. Thanks Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review and tell a