California Mass Timber Conference 2026
Welcome to the first annual California Mass Timber Conference on May 20th at the Richmond Field Station!
We are celebrating successes and the future of mass timber sourced, manufactured, designed, engineered and built in California.
Registration on eventbrite.
Organizing committee:
Patrick Kallerman (Bay Area Council), Katie Harrell (Board of Forestry), Masume Dana (Forell Elsesser), Philip Tidwell (UC Berkeley) and Paul Mayencourt (UC Berkeley)
Sponsors:
Swinerton; Forell Elsesser; Rothoblass, College of Environmental Design (UC Berkeley); Rausser College of Natural Ressources (UC Berkeley)
AGENDA
Coffee and networking | 8:30-9:00 am
Welcome session | 9:00-9:55 am
Setting the stage for a new California mass timber industry
Dean David Ackerly
Rausser College of Natural Ressources, University of California, Berkeley
Assembly Member Buffy Wicks
California State Assembly
Co-Chair of the Joint Institute for Wood Products Innovation
Terrence O’Brien ‘Terry’
Chair of the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection
Co-Chair of the Joint Institute for Wood Products Innovation
Michelle Boyd
Chief Strategy Officer, Terner Labs
Yana Valachovic
Forest Advisor and County Director (Humboldt and Del Norte), UC ANR
Dean Peter Mackeith
Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, University of Arkansas
Coffee break | 9:55-10:25am
sponsored by Forell Elsesser
Case studies | 10:25-12:00 am
Case studies in the development of a new California Mass Timber industry
George Schmidbauer
Mad River Mass Timber
Marisha Farnsworth & Jeremy Fisher
Forestree Collective / Timbershed
Tim Morshead
WRNS Studio
Jitske Swagemakers
Berkeley Wood Lab
Sarah Gunawan & Alex Bodkin
Terrestrial Pursuits / Berkeley Wood Lab
Lunch 12:00-1:15 pm
sponsored by Swinerton
Live demonstration of nail-laminated timber production
Adam Gordon
Case studies | 1:15 - 2:00 pm
Michael J. Gollner
Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Barbara Simpson
Assistant Professor, Stanford University
Dylan Wood
Assistant Professor, University of Oregon and TallWood Design Institute
Future CA manufacturers panel | 2:15 - 3:00 pm
Discuss next steps, opportunities and challenges to grow the California Mass Timber manufacturing industry
Chelsea Drenick | moderator
Woodworks
David Mercer
Alpenglow Timber
George Schmidbauer
Mad River Mass Timber
Jeremy Fisher
Timbershed
Scott Ehlert
Fabric Mass Timber
Jonathan Kusel
Mosaic Timber
Coffee break | 3:30 - 3:30 pm
sponsored by Forell Elsesser
Design industry panel | 3:30 - 4:15 pm
Presentation from leading industry professionals and discussion on how the design industry can support in-state production of mass timber
Masume Dana | moderator
Forell Elsesser
Geoff Bomba
Forell Elsesser
Dave Beck & Matt Larson
XL Construction & TimberQuest
Steve Wiesenthal
Studio Gang
Gregg Novicoff
LMS Architects
Bevan Jones
Holmes
Design Studio Research 4.30 - 5.00 pm
Special format including research by speakers and presentation of students work
Philip Tidwell
Department of Architecture, University of California Berkeley
Thomas Robinson
Lever Architecture, Visting Professor University of California, Berkeley
Social Hour 5:00 - 6:00 pm
sponsored by Rothoblaas