Cottonwood Canyon Experience Center Is Built Out Of Wood Nobody Wants

Juniper is an invasive species that’s tough to work with.

Whenever we write about wood construction and mass timber, we get complaints about deforestation and questions about whether it is really green and sustainable. This building, the Experience Center at Oregon State Park, may well become our poster child, our demonstration of wood done right.

© Signal Architecture + Research/ Gabe BorderSignal Architecture + Research has built the Cottonwood Canyon out of juniper, which is not your usual “Woodman, spare that tree!” material. In fact, it is described as something else altogether.

It’s not easy to work with, either.

It is also local, sourced 90 miles away and sawn at a mill 45 miles away. And once they managed to cut it, the resulting building looks lovely and smells like cedar.

The architects describe the building as “ranch vernacular” with shaded outdoor space, windbreaks, wood stove hearth, and walkways connecting to camping and cabin sites. It is sited to protect the outdoor meeting areas from the strong winds and summer sun; interior spaces are configured for “maximum adaptability.”

I wonder if they are on to something bigger here, this idea of using invasive species first in wood construction. TreeHugger’s sister site ThoughtCo lists 7 Common Invasive Trees in North America , including paulownia on the east coast, black locust and white poplar. Some of the others are poisonous and probably not a good plan. I don’t know which of them could be laid up to make mass timber, but at least nobody could possibly complain about it.