PORTLAND, Ore. — A nine-acre, 18-million pound, hand-crafted wooden roof is making a landing at PDX as part of a major expansion project for the airport's main terminal.
Construction has been underway for the last year and a half and now crews are starting to bring it all together — one section at a time.
The whole installation of this project has been taking place at night after the last flight leaves the airport.
What crews are doing next is move individual sections of this 392,000 square-foot-roof wooden roof nearly a mile across the airfield to the construction site.
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More than 40 local partners came together to make this idea a reality. This includes Tribal Nation representatives, small family forest owners and mills, community forests, architect ZGF, Sustainable Northwest and The Nature Conservancy.
There are 20 sections to this wood roof that collectively weigh more than 600,000 pounds.
Kama Simonds, spokesperson for the PDX airport shared the inspiration behind this unique design.
“I think anybody who has been for a hike around here knows that you can get into these lush forests. You look up, you see these wood canopy and you see the light coming through the trees,” said Simonds. “That was really the inspiration behind the wood roof. You look up there’s lots of skylights designed to bring in a lot of natural light into the space and then obviously to see the beauty of the wood that is the roof.”
Each section will take about four nights to move, align and slide into place over the terminal.
More than 95% of the wood is sourced from Oregon and Washington, following mass timber standards and practices that make forests healthier and buildings more sustainable.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.