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) and Paul Mayencourt (UC Berkeley)
Sponsors: Swinerton; Forell & Elsesser; College of Environmental Design (UC Berkeley); Rausser College of Natural Ressources (UC Berkeley)
AGENDA
(draft)Coffee and networking | 8:30-9:00 am
Welcome session | 9:00-10:00 am
Setting the stage for a new California mass timber industry
Dean David Ackerly
Rausser College of Natural Ressources, University of California, Berkeley
Dean Peter Mackeith
Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, University of Arkansas
More to be announced ...
Coffee break | 10-10:30am
sponsored by Forell & Elsesser
Case studies | 10:30-12:00 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
Jitske Swagemakers
Berkeley Wood Lab
Sarah Gunawan
Terestrial Pursuits / Berkeley Wood Lab
more to be annouced
Lunch 12:00-1:15 pm
sponsored by Swinerton
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
more to be announced soon
Future CA manufacturers panel | 2:15 - 3:00 pm
Discuss next steps to grow the California Mass Timber industry
David Mercer
Alpenglow Timber
George Schmidbauer
Mad River Mass Timber
Jeremy Fisher
Timbershed
more to be announced soon
Coffee break | 3:30 - 3:30 pm
sponsored by Forell & Elsesser
Design industry panel | 3:30 - 4:15 pm
Discuss next steps to grow the California Mass Timber industry
Masume Dana | moderator
Forell & Elsesser
to be announced soon
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