Olympic architecture

Use of wood in 2010 speed skating venue

One of the signature buildings — if not the signature building — of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games is the speed skating oval situated on the banks of the Fraser River in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond.

Filled, as you might expect, with all the state-of-the-art features to reduce energy consumption and increase creature comforts, the most stunning part of the Richmond Olympic Oval is the extensive use of wood in its construction.

Almost all of the wood used in the building comes from the forests of British Columbia, including lumber from trees killed by the mountain pine beetle. This forest pest, native to western Canadian and U.S. forests, has reached epidemic proportions in many of these forests in recent years. The beetle in British Columbia, aided by an abundant food source and a series of warmer-than-usual winters, reached record proportions, infesting large tracts of the province’s lodgepole pine forests.

The innovative roof design of the Olympic Oval provides a clear example of the versatility and environmental benefits of using wood as a construction material. This one-of-a-kind 6.5-acre roof structure features hollow, triangular-shaped composite wood-steel arches, which span 310 feet and conceal mechanical ducts, electrical conduits and sprinkler pipes. Conceived and engineered by a local Vancouver firm, the roof is built with timber harvested from certified forests in the interior of British Columbia and features 15 laminated wood beams made up of 1 million board feet of wood from trees affected by the mountain pine beetle.

Spanning the arches are novel, prefabricated “wood wave” panels consisting of 2x4’s and plywood — again, including wood from trees killed by the beetle. The roof structure not only provides an economical design solution but its rippled appearance also gives a striking aesthetic quality and enhanced acoustic performance.

The Richmond Olympic Oval is a visually impressive architectural design and is also meant to demonstrate Canada’s ongoing commitment to sustainable development — wood is a “green” building material — and part of the Vancouver Organizing Committee’s pledge to make the 2010 Games the “greenest ever.”

The Oval also highlights the innovative ways wood can be used in large construction projects, and it is an artistic testimony to the huge role the forest industry continues to play in the economy of the province of British Columbia and Canada as a whole.