A warehouse made of wood from British Columbia? It's happening in Texas

Industrial project seeks to be more environmentally friendly with timber construction.

Construction is underway at the Southfield Park 35 warehouse in southern Dallas, using wooden timber panels instead of the usual concrete walls.(Jason Janik)

From the street, one of the newest Dallas industrial projects looks more like Noah’s Ark than a warehouse.

Stretching longer than a football field, the distribution building is covered in wood instead of the usual concrete tilt-up walls.

The so far one-of-a-kind project south of Interstate 20 in southern Dallas County is an effort of two of the country’s largest warehouse developers — USAA Real Estate and Seefried Industrial Properties — to produce a more environmentally friendly building.

At first glance, it’s easy to see that the structure is dramatically different from the other 56 million square feet of industrial buildings going up in North Texas.

“These very sexy wood walls are going to get a lot of attention,” said USAA construction management director Josh Hullum. “It’s the first design like this we are aware of in North America.”

The inside walls of the big-box warehouse building are lined with rich-looking wooden planks called cross-laminated timber. Almost 6 inches thick, the wooden walls are a big contrast to the gray concrete slabs that line most modern warehouses.

The laminated timbers make up 60-foot panels that surface the building in the Southfield Park 35 business park on Old Hickory Road.

The exterior of the new warehouse is covered in 60-foot laminated timber panels.(Jason Janik)

The wood comes from carefully managed forestland in British Columbia.

“I know most people are probably thinking why?” Hullum said. “Why take on this, especially in an industrial warehouse setting?

“Compared to a conventional design, we are reducing our global warming potential by 45% — almost half of what a conventional facility would admit as carbon into the atmosphere,” he said. “That’s a statistic we are really proud of.”

The exterior of the building will eventually be skinned in metal panels.

“We could have left the outside like it is and sealed up the wood, but it would look like a barn,” Hullum said.

The timber walls are fire rated and have thermal qualities to keep out the heat and cold.

“You won’t have to insulate the inside,” he said. “We really wanted to preserve the natural wood.”

While the construction costs for the first building are slightly higher than traditional warehouses, the developers think the sustainable construction techniques warrant the extra expense.

“Are we going to solve climate change with this one building? Absolutely not,” Hullum said. “But for us, it was the first step of many to do the right thing.”

The interior walls of the warehouse will remain as natural wood.(Steve Brown )

The project represents a return to the past in some ways.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, most warehouse buildings in North Texas and around the country were built using huge timber beams. The USAA-Seefried building retains steel support columns and roof trusses.

Office developers also are turning to wooden construction, building timber-frame projects including some high-rises on the West Coast. A timber office project is planned north of downtown Dallas in the Northend office and mixed-use development.

Colliers International is leasing the USAA building, hoping to find a tenant looking for something outside the box of usual warehouses.

“It’s really unique,” said Colliers executive vice president Chris Teesdale. He said the building would prove especially attractive to a business that is “sensitive to the environment and wants to be carbon friendly.”

“Because the building’s interior is so unique with the fully exposed wood interior walls, it should provide a quieter and peaceful work environment that will be attractive to some companies as well,” Teesdale said.

Clayco Construction is the general contractor.

USAA and partner Seefried are building warehouses all over the country and plan more timber structures.

“It’s been a heck of a learning experience as you might think, and it’s something we are really proud of,” Hullum said. “We are actually doing it in two other jobs — one in California and the other one is out of Fort Worth.

“We found success the first time, so why not do it again?”