To create the new 11,000-sq-ft SOS Children’s Villages Illinois - Roosevelt Square Community Center, the team designed and built a single-story cross-laminated timber superstructure—with columns, beams and a roof structure that were all executed using CLT. As one of the first large such projects built in the Chicago area, the team had to navigate unfamiliarity with the permit review process. A local erection company and carpentry union had to coordinate training efforts to improve its understanding of how to work with the material. Lendlease also had to solve coordination challenges between the CLT structure and supplemental steel used for canopies and window headers. 

Photos courtesy of Lendlease

During the design and coordination phase, SOS Children’s Villages Illinois added a solar photovoltaic system, which had been recently donated to the project. The CLT coordination team had to make quick changes to strengthen the system so it could sustain the solar photovoltaic panel loads before CLT production was released.

Photos courtesy of Lendlease

CLT loads were erected using a crane with carpenter erectors working from manlifts instead of ladders to improve safety. For the CLT roof modules, temporary perimeter railings were installed on each panel before the roof modules were lifted from the ground. The strategy allowed the erectors who were fastening down panels to work safely near an edge with perimeter railings already in place. During the project’s 21,303 work hours, no lost-time accidents or OSHA recordable incidents were tallied.

The center, which completed in October 2020, provides office spaces and a community center with a culinary kitchen for training purposes and learning labs.