When you think sports arena construction, concrete and steel often come to mind. Not so in Idaho, where the forestry industry is a predominant economic driver for the state. And the University of Idaho’s need for a new home for its basketball program offered an opportunity to showcase the benefits and capabilities of mass timber. The arena’s distinctive design includes a double curved roofline inspired by the rolling hills of the Palouse region, which creates a stunning visual to showcase the long-span capabilities of wood and mass timber.
The arena was a long-identified need for the campus. As the project advanced, “local forest industry partners pushed university leadership to think about doing something different than just the normal concrete and steel approach,” says Dennis Becker, dean and professor of natural resource policy in the university’s College of Natural Resources.