OREGON CITY, OREGON / ACCESS Newswire / October 29, 2025 / The Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) and the USDA Forest Service (USDA) have 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 specific focus on K-12 educational environments.
The winning projects demonstrate how biophilic design using solid wood can strengthen academic performance, improve teacher and staff well-being, and create healthier, more resilient learning spaces for students. This is the third round of the competition, which has already advanced a number of innovative solid wood projects nationwide.
“Mass wood is a revolutionary building material – and in schools, a path 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 performance, 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 wood plays a critical role in improving the health and resiliency of America's forests, while providing the raw material for inspiring and uplifting schools. By linking responsible forest management to the needs of K-12 communities, these projects demonstrate how the benefits of mass timber travel from our forests directly to classrooms – where students, educators and families can all benefit,” added John Crockett, USDA Forest Service deputy director for public, 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 is located on a small urban campus that has become increasingly crowded as the school has grown over the years, leaving little open space 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 providing outdoor space for learning, socializing and athletic activities, and connected by a solid wood-framed bridge. Most classrooms and a variety of other spaces will be housed in Type IV HT solid wood construction, with DLT Acoustic Flooring (ADLT) 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 provide a 21st century learning environment with strong indoor-outdoor connections, Passive House performance, and US CHPS Verified Leader certification. The carbon-neutral and all-electric project emphasizes wellness, natural light and sustainability while preserving the site's iconic ancient oak tree. The superstructure is designed to maximize carbon reduction through a predominantly solid timber system with CLT floor and roof decks and glulam beams, beams and columns. Exposed wood will characterize key areas such as the library, café and meeting point, providing both structural efficiency and biophilic impact.
New Central Maui School
Waikapu, Hawaii – Project Team: Hawaii School Facilities Authority, Hawaii Off Grid, MKThink, RT Tanaka Engineers, Mo'olelo Group
This new middle school will initially accommodate 300 to 600 students and will grow to 1,150 over time to meet the community's urgent needs following the Lahaina wildfire and population growth in the area. Designed as a community school, its facilities will serve both students and the wider community, with the cafetorium doubling as emergency accommodation. The structural system is planned as a floor slab with glulam posts and beams supporting CLT, NLT or DLT roof frames and selected partition walls. By using a comprehensive mass timber system in classrooms and community spaces, the project reduces both carbon emissions and the role of wood in resilient community infrastructure.
Whittier Elementary School
Washington, DC – 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 square footage while preserving the historic main building. The hardwood addition will include a library, STEM and art classrooms, a gym, cafeteria and outdoor green space. With the support of the competition, the project team is examining replacing the originally planned steel frame with supplied CLT and glued laminated timber systems. Wood would be featured in highly visible learning spaces to integrate it into Whittier's sustainability curriculum, while margin optimization and cost modeling would be used to confirm its viability as an economically and educationally enriching choice.
About the competition
The goal of the 2025 Mass Timber Competition was to highlight the unique benefits of mass timber in K-12 educational projects, including classrooms, libraries, sports facilities, daycare centers and vocational training centers. Eligible applicants included U.S.-based for-profit companies, nonprofit organizations, school districts, local governments and Native American tribal governments.
WoodWorks, a non-profit organization of civil engineers, architects and construction experts, conducted the technical review and evaluation of the submissions. The finalists were selected by an independent jury from the fields of architecture, civil engineering, construction, education and sustainability. The jury included:
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Suni Dillard, sustainability director at HMFH Architects
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John Hand, deputy director at Arup
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Esther Liu, President and CEO of LSW Architects
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Catie Ryan, Associate Partner at Terrapin Bright Green
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Craig Schiller, Executive Director of the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS)
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Heather Stegner, COO of the American Wood Council
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Andrew Waugh, founder and director of Waugh Thistleton Architects
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Antony Wood, professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology
The winning projects demonstrate how mass timber can provide scalable, repeatable models for educational institutions across the United States. The award winners are committed to sharing the lessons learned – including cost analyses, life cycle assessments and design insights – with the broader construction and education community.
Media contact
For images and further information about the winning projects, please contact: info@softwoodlumberboard.org.
About the softwood lumber panel
The Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) is an industry-funded initiative to promote the use, environmental and economic benefits of softwood lumber products. SLB-supported programs and initiatives, including American Wood Council, Think Wood, WoodWorks and SLB Education, focus on increasing demand for wood products in the United States. For more information, visit www.softwoodlumberboard.org.
About the USDA Forest Service
Founded in 1905, the Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is the nation's leading federal forestry organization. The agency is a global leader in forest research and provides leadership in the sustainable management, conservation, use and management of natural and cultural resources in 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 protection organization provides important expertise to make communities and infrastructure safer. Additionally, the agency supports communities; state, local and tribal governments; Forestry; and private forest landowners improve conditions in both urban and rural areas. In total, the Forest Service helps manage approximately 900 million acres of forest land in the United States, including 130 million acres in urban areas that most Americans now call home.
Contact information
Simon Hyun
Vice President of Marketing and Communications
info@softwoodlumberboard.org
(971) 339-4934
SOURCE: Softwood lumber board
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