University of Arkansas - Anthony Timberlands Center

Fayetteville, AR

The Anthony Timberlands center is structurally significant with its use of balloon-framed CLT shear walls reaching max heights of 66'. A queen-post truss at the high ridge line supports the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors, with the 2nd floor auditorium being directly over a working fabrication shop.
Glulam columns, beams, and chevron braces by Binderholz are of Austrian Red Spruce, while CLT floor, roof, and wall panels by Mercer are of Southern Pine. Two stairs were also made of CLT: a single-flight stair connected to a cantilevered landing in the NW corner lobby, and a 6-flight CLT stair with CLT landings in a CLT stairwell on the west exterior wall. Both stairs utilized 3-ply CLT guardrails.
4 thicknesses of CLT, ranging from 4 1/8" to 9 5/8", were used. CLT grades included V3 for some floor, roof, and wall panels, and E4 for all shear walls and stair flight, and some floor and roof panels. Much of the CLT was able to be produced in Conway, Arkansas, less than 200 miles from the project.
The primary glulam columns are 42"x52" in cross-section and support not only 4 levels of CLT floors, but also a 5-ton gantry crane in the lower shop area. The main floor beams were up to 64' long (including an 11' cantilever), with a max size of 15 3/4" wide x 2'-9" deep, in a gapped double beam configuration (i.e. total beam width was almost 40" with a roughly 8" center gap).
The Anthony Timberlands Center pushed design boundaries in several areas and required solving many unique challenges, living up to its name as a "Center for Design and Materials Innovation."

Version History
Project Details
  • Year Built

    2025

  • Number Of Stories

    4

  • Bldg system

    Mass Timber

  • Sq. Meters

    3,413

  • Construction Type:

    IV-HT

  • Building Type:

    Educational

  • Material Types:

    Mass Timber
    Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT)
    Glue-Laminated Timber (GLT or glulam)
    Fasteners / Hardware

Version History
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