Many of us have been spending extra time at home the past few months, bringing new meaning to May as Building Safety Month. This year’s theme was aptly chosen and is “Safer Buildings, Safer Communities, Safer World.”
Ensuring that local building codes are up-to-date with the most recent, consensus-based standards from the American Wood Council (AWC) is essential for making sure that our communities are safe.
AWC-ICC Mass Timber Training
Beginning in late 2019, AWC partnered with the International Code Council (ICC) to put together a series of webinars and training to inform code and fire officials about the upcoming tall mass timber code changes in the 2021 International Building Code (IBC). The series of six 90-minute webinars will be repeated beginning May 11 and will run through June 22. If you haven’t yet been able to participate in the training, you can register here.
Free Mass Timber Webinar
Additionally, AWC is hosting a free webinar on Thursday, May 21 to coincide with the Building Safety Month’s weekly theme of “Resiliency. Sustainability. Innovation.” The webinar, “Building Sustainably with Mass Timber” will feature Dr. Patricia Layton of the Wood Utilization & Design Institute at Clemson University.
Dr. Layton will discuss the sustainability advantages mass timber brings to construction and buildings, including from where the wood is sourced. She will also highlight a recently completed mass timber building project on the campus of Clemson University, and the plans for a second building.
Register for the free webinar here.
Updated Standards
AWC’s staff experts are continuously enhancing AWC’s state-of-the-art consensus standards, driven by engineering data and the most recent innovations in wood construction and material. These standards, which are referenced as requirements in all building codes and must be regularly reviewed to meet building code development cycles, include designs for high wind, seismic events, floods, and building fires.
The latest edition of AWC’s Special Design Provisions for Wind and Seismic (SDPWS) is on target to be published by December 1, in order to retain its reference in the 2021 IBC. We’ll report on its availability later in the year.
Additionally, AWC again joined with ICC to develop a new publication, Mass Timber in the International Building Code. The publication will be available shortly and will be the go-to-guide for mass timber in the I-codes.
Stay Safe
It goes without saying that AWC’s primary mission is safety for both buildings and their occupants. That’s why our experts work tirelessly to ensure that our standards take into account the latest consensus-based, up-to-date codes and technologies and that code and fire officials are properly informed about those design standards.
AWC celebrates all who work to ensure that our built environment is a safe environment, not just during Building Safety Month, but year-round.