BIRMINGHAM, Alabama and BENTONVILLE, Arkansas
,
September 1, 2022
(press release)
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Crystal Bridges Museum’s Architecture at Home: house of trees : city of trees Envisions Affordable, Climate-Smart Communities Built with Mass Timber Wood Products Resource Management Service, LLC (RMS), one of the world's leading managers of forest investments for institutional investors, announced today that it provided logistical support to the Architecture at Home: house of trees : city of trees exhibition at the Crystal Bridges Museum at Bentonville, Arkansas by helping its partner, LEVENBETTS, an award-winning, New York City-based architectural firm, source the sustainable timber products that were required to execute the project. The two organizations, LEVENBETTS and RMS, collaborated with the staff of the museum on house of trees : city of trees https://www.levenbetts.com/work.php/. Their objective was to demonstrate the synergies that exist between sustainably managed forests, the timber products they can generate, and the ways in which such materials can be employed in the future to help provide attractive, affordable, and climate-smart housing options for communities by using mass timber products. The exhibition is open to the public free-of-charge until November 7, 2022 https://crystalbridges.org/calendar/architecture- at-home/. RMS’ involvement in the project included sourcing and helping to fund the purchase of the wood products used to construct the exhibition’s mass timber pavilion. Among other things, this required leveraging close working relationships RMS has with other companies and organizations in the forestry and forest products communities in Arkansas. RMS also worked with its partners at LEVENBETTS to prepare a successful grant proposal, which was submitted to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative’s (SFI®) Community Grants Program https://forests.org/sfi-community-grants-rfp-process/. The $10,000 received from SFI allows the pavilion to be used as an arena for advancing forest literacy on-site and among trees, which is a major learning outcome and objective of the project. These efforts will be planned and managed by Project Learning Tree (PLT), an organization that educates children in grades K-12 about forests, forestry, and their influence on society https://www.plt.org/. RMS maintains a significant presence in Arkansas as the manager of tens of thousands of acres of investment-grade forests for its clients. It made hard-dollar financial contributions to the exhibition in excess of $30,000 to help purchase the required mass timber and other wood products that were utilized. In total, approximately 18,000 board feet of lumber was used. This funding by the firm was augmented by significant amounts of staff time by members of the RMS team. “We are pleased to be involved with this exhibition because it helps us envision a future where sustainably grown wood products are increasingly used to build homes and communities that are affordable, beautiful and climate smart,” said Alex Hinson, President and CEO of RMS. “This is an outlook that directly aligns with what we do, which is practice sustainable forestry to provide society with the raw materials it needs – and in ways that enhance our quality of life by protecting water and air quality and by providing a broad range of other values, including green space, recreational opportunities, and climate benefits,” he continued. “Our objective is to be recognized as the premier creator of forest value and to advance societal appreciation for the value and importance of privately-owned forests – and the objectives the Crystal Bridges Museum and LEVENBETTS outlined for the exhibition were a great fit for our philanthropic priorities.” “house of trees : city of trees” broadens the conversation around the future of mass timber housing and neighborhood planning,” said Jen Shin, Project Lead and Director of tank, the environmental and research arm of LEVENBETTS. “By engaging the timber supply chain starting at the forest, the project has become a case study in how affordable housing development can be used to strengthen relationships between communities, nature, and the environment,” she continued. According to Jimmy Bullock, Senior Vice President of Forest Sustainability at RMS, its partners from the forestry and forest industry communities in Arkansas each played essential roles in providing the design team from LEVENBETTS with the support and building materials that were required to execute house of trees : city of trees. “We contacted our friends at Anthony Timberlands https://www.anthonytimberlands.com/ to mill the sustainably grown timber into lumber and then purchased the lumber from the company and donated it,” said Bullock. “We also co-funded the purchase of the GluLam beams used in the exhibition with our partner, Canfor, which manufactured them https://www.canfor.com/products/solid-wood/southern-yellow- pine-syp. The Weyerhaeuser Company https://www.weyerhaeuser.com/ connected us with its partner, Maverick Transportation https://www.maverickusa.com/, which donated the trucking of the lumber and joists from the manufacturing facilities to the museum. Like RMS, these companies are based, or have significant operations in, Arkansas. Finally, the Arkansas Forestry Association (AFA) https://www.arkforests.org/, of which RMS is a member, is leading the educational efforts by leveraging Project Learning Tree’s resources, and we greatly appreciate the involvement of the AFA team,” he said. In praising the forestry and forest industry partners that worked with RMS and LEVENBETTS on the project, Bullock singled out Art McCants, Anthony Timberland’s Vice President of Logging and Timber Procurement, and Rick Green the company’s Chief Financial Officer. He also said Chris Webb, General Manager of Engineered Wood Product Sales, took the lead on the project for Canfor Southern Pine and played an essential role – as did Ara Erickson on behalf of Weyerhaeuser. In addition, Bullock thanked Max Brasfield, the Arkansas Forestry Association’s Executive Director, who, in addition to facilitating the SFI grant proposal helped amplify the exhibition’s messaging about the importance of sustainable forestry. Bullock said RMS is a long-time supporter of both the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and Project Learning Tree and that the firm greatly appreciated those organizations’ support as well. Finally, he praised the team at LEVENBETTS for their capacity to both conceptualize the exhibition and mobilize the partners, including RMS, that were needed to make it a reality. “The final result of the design process comes directly from our collaboration with these regional partners from the forest sector,” said Stella Betts, principal at LEVENBETTS. “Our pavilion is a dialogue with both Arkansas forests and contemporary wood technology,” added Deven Leven, also a principal with LEVENBETTS. The loblolly pine trees used to produce the materials employed to construct the exhibition’s mass timber pavilion were grown and harvested in Arkansas. The Structurlam Mass Timber Corporation, which is based at Conway, Arkansas, manufactured the Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) products that were used https://www.structurlam.com/. In commenting further on house of trees : city of trees and the Arkansas-centric collaboration between his firm, LEVENBETTS, and their forestry and forest industry partners, Alex Hinson of RMS said the project is unique because “The wood that was used was sustainably grown in Arkansas – was harvested by Arkansas loggers – processed by Arkansas-based mills – hauled by Arkansas truckers – and, assembled by Arkansas builders – all with broad support from the Arkansas forestry community.” RMS’ Bullock went on to explain that mass timber products are a relatively new and increasingly popular category of engineered building products. They make use of milled softwood timber that is then fastened together using high-strength adhesives to create strong boards, panels, planks, and large capacity support tresses, which are then assembled to create huge wood structures. These products are increasingly being used in the United States and around the world to construct everything from office buildings, multi-unit housing complexes, and single-family homes to municipal buildings, dormitories, academic research facilities, and even sports stadiums. Bullock said RMS is a supporter of mass timber technology because it makes use of sustainably grown timber, is aesthetically pleasing, and is exceptionally strong and fire resistant. He also said it is climate friendly because, unlike steel and concrete, which are produced from processes that emit vast amounts of carbon dioxide, it locks up the carbon trees sequester while they are growing in the durable wood products that are produced from them. In this way, mass timber products, like traditional dimensional lumber products, act as a vault by preventing the carbon trees absorb from being emitted back into the atmosphere. For these reasons, he said RMS sees mass timber as one of the most important building technologies of the future. -More- RMS Supports Sustainable Architectural Home Exhibition in Arkansas – 5 About Resource Management Service, LLC RMS is one of the world’s largest and most experienced providers of timberland investment and forestry management services. Our focus is generating optimal, near-term cash yield and long-term asset appreciation by employing the most advanced and sustainable forest management practices in the
world. As an independently owned and operated company, RMS has established a legacy by optimizing the biological, financial, and societal values for every asset we manage. Based in Birmingham, Alabama, RMS is a Registered Investment Adviser with 2.4 million acres of timberland assets under management in the United States and Brazil. For more information, please visit us at:www.resourcemgt.com.
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