Olympic oval showcases sustainable wood

British Columbia is facing a massive environmental catastrophe and a huge economic opportunity. Designers of a venue for the 2010 Winter Olympic venue are highlighting both in its green built venue.

As much as one-third of British Columbia's forests have been decimated by a pine beetle infestation according to the city of Richmond, BC, which is the future site of the Olympic Speed Skating competition. As a result, there is a lot of prematurely harvested timber available in the Canadian province. This is why the designers of The Richmond Olympic Oval chose to use it for the structure's massive 100 meter by 200 meter roof.

“We thought, 'How can we showcase that wood and showcase its structural integrity and its beauty,'” says Marion LaRue, a principal at Cannon Design which designed the Oval. “We came up with an idea of incorporating it into the roof design.”

The entire underside of the CAD $178 million dramatic sweeping roof is made of unfinished, 2x4 lumber milled from pine-beetle timber. Because there's so much of it in such a dramatic application, it's an excellent marketing tool for the province's forestry ministry, LaRue says.

It's also a highly renewable resource and because its unfinished, the wood helped the building achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) – Silver certification as well as certification by Green Globes, no mean feat for a building that has to create enough ice to cover six hockey rinks.

According to LaRue, the unfinished lumber has a blue hue, which is the only thing that differentiates it from other woods. Cannon Design used it in structural applications and found that there was no extra waste in the milling process either. Finally, LaRue says, the cost of the roof was about the same as a steel structure they also considered.