LESSONS IN COLLABORATION: Milwaukee’s Baird Center showcases the value of urban wood
FEATURED PROJECT
The benefits of urban wood resonate with stakeholders committed to sustainability
The grand staircase in the newly expanded Baird Center in Milwaukee is one of the convention center’s most talked-about design features, but it is also a conversation starter on how to incorporate urban wood into modern architecture and realize the lasting social, environmental, and economic benefits associated with it.
The staircase is function and beauty combined — traditional stairs on the left direct the 400,000-plus annual visitors in and out of the convention center; an adjoining collaborative staircase is a gathering spot that encourages lingering and conversation. Reclaimed ash covers the expanse, visually stunning and thoroughly welcoming.
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“We wanted a wow element and a warm feeling when you first walked in,” said Jackie Posselt, senior interior designer and principal at Eppstein Uhen Architects (EUA), who worked on the project. “The collaborative staircase is an art piece all on its own, but the story of the wood itself is equally impressive.”
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A QR code on the staircase leads those interested to more information on the sourcing of the ash wood from regional trees cut down for reasons other than harvest. Trees coming to the end of their life or damaged trees that would have been converted into a waste stream are repurposed for things like interior furnishings and architectural woodwork. By repurposing wood that is worthy of a higher use, fewer trees are wasted, and resources required in manufacturing new products are conserved.
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“The collaborative stairs are functional, modern, and constructed using trees that once stood tall right here in our community,” Wisconsin Center District President and CEO Marty Brooks said. “I hope future Baird Center guests use this staircase to connect not only with the people around them but with Milwaukee and the community itself.”
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Wudeward Urban Forest Products supplied the wood for the Baird Center staircase. Owner Dwayne Sperber is one of the country’s leading advocates, producers, and suppliers for urban wood products, helping start the now-national Urban Wood Network (UWN) in Milwaukee more than 20 years ago to advance the sustainable recovery and the highest and best use for the products of urban and community forests.
“We have learned more and more about the abundance of material that is possible from trees that were once considered a liability as waste material,” Sperber said, who continues in an advisory role with UWN. “The urban wood industry links the entire material stream, from the planting and managing of urban and community forests to new uses in the built environment after trees reach end of life,” Sperber said. “It’s a virtuous circle.”
​Sperber’s counterpart in California, Jennifer Alger, owner and president of Far West Forest Products, said urban wood is still an unknown resource in many ways. “There are billions of board feet of wood coming out of the urban environment every year still going into the waste stream. The normal state, by far, is that these trees are chipped, mulched, or landfilled.”
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Through the Urban Wood Network, Alger, Sperber, and a growing number of others are advancing the urban wood industry by removing real and perceived barriers to specification by the design community. New standards and certifications through USRW, the nonprofit Urban Salvaged and Reclaimed Woods Inc., have been developed to ensure that products with the USRW label are quality products that have been sourced and processed following environmental and socially responsible practices.
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“Those of us in the industry believe that if we can educate enough people about the existence of urban wood as an economical and environmentally beneficial option, they will choose it,” Alger said.
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Initiatives such as the American Institute of Architects Materials Pledge are helping to broaden awareness of urban wood as a sustainability-minded best practice. Lisa Kennedy, former executive director of AIA Wisconsin, said the dual goal of reducing construction waste and repurposing natural resources aligns with the concept of urban wood use.
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“As we continue to look for more sustainable options in the construction industry, urban wood is a natural resource,” Kennedy said. “In the context of cradle-to-grave solutions, urban wood provides architects with a solution to not only reduce waste, but also create opportunities for reuse of materials.”  From supporting ecosystem health to benefits to human health and climate — all tenets of the AIA pledge — urban wood products reduce negative impacts on the environment by reducing carbon emissions and helps repair natural and human systems. Further, repurposing wood from communities supports a circular economy and reduces material transportation costs, another pillar of the AIA pledge. EUA’s Posselt said the use of urban wood supports EUA’s sustainability mission as well as individual project goals but acknowledges that awareness of this resource is lacking among her peers. “The future for urban wood can only get better if designers and architects understand its potential.”
Grant Helle, director of the Office of Sustainability for Milwaukee County, is another proponent of urban wood. “The partnership between EUA, CD Smith (project contractor) and Wudeward to develop the Baird Center’s ‘social stair’ has resulted in a venue and commitment that aligns with Milwaukee County’s own climate action and emissions reduction goals,” Helle said of the now-LEED Gold-certified Baird Center.
For Sperber, educating the design industry about the benefits of urban wood is only part of his mission. “Our industry doesn't exist without the planting and care of urban community trees,” he said. That’s why he invites architects and others to an annual tree-planting event to gain a better understanding of the urban forest life cycle.
“We're trying to make that connection that when you utilize urban wood products, you're supporting your essential urban and community forests. When you're supporting your urban forest, you're supporting urban wood products,” Sperber said. “The tagline of our industry is Trees First, Wood Next.”
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Sperber envisions a future in which the use of urban forest products becomes second nature as awareness of the beneficial nature of urban forest products permeates culture. Until such time, the Baird Center staircase showcases the value of urban wood and the success that comes from collaboration.
“Urban wood has a way of bringing people together because it comes from where we live,” Sperber said. “Every person who uses this stairway is now a little bit more aware of the urban forest and the function and beauty it can provide through urban wood.”