Montana State University (MSU) broke ground April 17, 2024, on Gianforte Hall- School of Computing in Bozeman, MT, and the WWS install team topped out the mass timber structure on less than one year later (our portion required 3-ish months onsite). To have the guts of this 60,000-square-foot building built less than 12 months after breaking ground is a true credit to all entities involved in planning and building this three-story building.

WWS provided Design Assist Services, VE and Budgeting, Logistics and Sourcing options, Procurement, Fabrication, 3D Modeling, Erection Drawings, Installation and Constructability input. WWS also organized Glulam (GL) and Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) manufacturing tours in coordination for MSU to educate and understand the material options available, along with the properties and characteristics of the wood materials being utilized.

 
The building was made possible by a $50 million gift from the Gianforte Family Foundation.

Gianforte Hall will incorporate multiple sustainability features designed to target a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, silver certification. The building will be part of MSU's South Campus Energy District, a system that helps reduce energy use by allowing buildings to help heat and cool each other. Also on the wood sustainability front, the team was able to reduce the carbon footprint of the building and support local manufacturing at the same time, with sourcing GL/CLT materials locally. All Glulam an CLT was manufactured in the USA.

Several years of teamwork and planning between Swank Enterprises, Hennebery Eddy Architects & Lake Flato Architects, DCI Engineers, MSU, and WWS paid off this winter in Bozeman, MT. Successfully topping off the largest mass timber project for the state of Montana on March 31. Many months were invested exploring and refining details and VE options with the AEC team regarding the mass timber elements before coming up with the final design. This exercise insured the project stayed in budget and remained mass timber.

There is a lot to celebrate on this project, the WWS installation team were able to keep the schedule through a winter in Bozeman, which is no easy accomplishment (-15-degree mornings / Constant snow and wind). We maintained a 6-7 carpenter crew that built and topped out 60,000sqft Gianforte Hall on March 31. Our crew started just after Christmas and worked through winter in Bozeman; their hard work is evident in the results of the pictures.

Two graduating engineering students (identical twins Gus and Luke) from the engineering college attended the topping-off celebration and signed the last panel installed, along with the MSU school representatives, GC, and Architect. This beautiful wood structure was impressive to all attendees, and the twins were excited to be a part of the ceremony and pass the torch on to the future beneficiaries of Gianforte Hall- College of Computer Engineering future students soon to grace the halls in early 2026.

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