Following a September 12 groundbreaking, Leers Weinzapfel’s Conservation Legacy Center for the non-profit National Museum of Forest Service History in Missoula, Montana is now under construction. The project’s purpose is to educate the public about the history and ongoing conservation work of the United States Forest Service (USFS). Its design is inspired by the qualities of the USFS forests as valuable recreational and economic resources across the nation’s history and also echoes features of the surrounding mountain landscape.

The Center itself will be an exhibit, featuring representative wood species found throughout the US, wood products developed with USFS Forest Products Lab, and an array of mass timber products including glulams, cross laminated timber (CLT) and Mass Plywood Panels (MPP). Tree-like columns will exhibit timber craft and advanced engineering, showcasing sixteen representative trees from national forests. The unique two-way span capability of MPP is exhibited in the folded roof geometry over the building’s south-facing portico and main lobby. The predominantly wood building provides a new focus on a sustainable way of building, comprising low embodied carbon, renewable materials, and carbon sequestration.

Visitors will experience curated exhibits within as well as views to the Museum’s campus. Supplemental features of the Center and campus provide additional visitor experiences including archival repository processing, forested landscape with featured specimen trees among exhibits to the north, and the dramatic open vista and mountain views to the south. The south-facing portico incorporates passive cooling and heating principles by blocking hot summer sun while welcoming winter rays. A roof deck provides panoramic views of the campus and access to a fire tower.

“The Conservation Legacy Center will demonstrate an encyclopedia of timber technologies, ranging from cutting-edge mass timber products and digital fabrication to traditional wood joinery and a ‘forest’ of 14 iconic wood species,” says Tom Chung, FAIA , LEED AP, BD+C, and Principal-in-Charge. “This approach will generate a compelling space as well as a one-of-a-kind example that affirms the importance of our national forests and the many wood species that have provided vast construction resources over the past century.” The project is scheduled for completion in 2025.

Awards to Date

2023 BSA Unbuilt Planning & Design Award: Planning, Impact   /   2023 World Architecture News Awards: Education, Bronze

A National Leader in Mass Timber Design

Leers Weinzapfel Associates designed the first large scale higher-education mass timber building in the nation: the The Olver Design Building at University of Massachusetts Amherst. The project received 19

prestigious awards including the AIA Architecture Award (2023), AIA COTE Top Ten Award (2020), World Architects Building of the Year 2017, and inclusion in the Wall Street Journal‘s Best Architecture of 2017.

The Design Building was followed by the largest cross laminated timber building in the US upon its completion, Adohi Hall at the University of Arkansas, as well as eight others to date in design or construction.

Image Courtesy of: Leers Weinzapfel

About Leers Weinzapfel

Recipient of the 2007 American Institute of Architects Firm Award and The Architect’s Newspaper 2022 Best of Practice Award: Large Firm/Northeast, Leers Weinzapfel Associates seeks to enrich places where we live and work through strategic interconnections among architecture, landscape, urban design, and infrastructure. Recognized for its inventiveness in incredibly complex commissions, it resolves these challenges with uncommon design clarity, elegance, and refinement. Internationally known for its distinctive designs, The firm’s projects, including the UMass Amherst John W. Olver Design Building, Wentworth Institute of Technology Center for Engineering, Innovation, and Sciences, the University of Pennsylvania Gateway Complex, and the Harvard University District Energy Facility, explore new material possibilities and sustainable awards, approaches, enhance placemaking and enrich the lived experience. Work of the practice has been published and exhibited globally  and is also widely recognized with more than 100 international, national and regional awards as well as the JUST label for equitable organizations, reflecting the firm’s long commitment to justice, equity, diversity. and inclusion.

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Feature Image Courtesy of: Leers Weinzapfel