A long-term care facility planned by the Bay Mills Indian Community in the Upper Peninsula community of Brimley is the latest mass timber project in Michigan to receive funding and technical expertise provided by the Michigan Mass Timber Catalyst Program.
The project will receive $50,000. It’s among 10 projects statewide to share in $400,000 of funding designed to spur mass timber building around Michigan.
“We received six applicants for a number of different projects in the Upper Peninsula,” said Patrick Mohney, senior lands program manager with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Public Lands. “This shows that interest in this building technique is growing.”
The U.P. project joins nine others in the Lower Peninsula as the catalyst program’s first cohort. Projects ranging from a woodworking school in Adrian to a municipal building in Grand Rapids and mixed-use facilities in several locations were previously awarded grants of $25,000 to $60,000.
Mass timber enables the construction of large buildings – even skyscrapers – using wood that is engineered to be strong and fire-resistant. Both Michigan State University and the Department of Natural Resources have invested in mass timber buildings: MSU’s STEM Teaching and Learning Facility on its East Lansing campus and the DNR’s Newberry Customer Service Center in the eastern Upper Peninsula.
The catalyst program provides financial and technical support to project teams engaged in the early planning and design phases of new building construction projects that use mass timber as a primary structural or architectural material. Projects may include commercial, industrial, public/institutional, multifamily residential and other building types that demonstrate innovative and optimized use of mass timber.
“With more than 65 mass timber projects complete, in development or under construction in the state, Michigan is becoming a leader in mass timber adoption in the eastern United States,” said Sandra Lupien, Director, MassTimber@MSU, Michigan State University. “The Michigan Mass Timber Catalyst Program seeks to ensure this momentum continues here, by giving early adopters like the Bay Mills Indian Community and the other cohort members additional support and resources to help them successfully implement mass timber.”
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