Gray Organschi Architecture awarded US Forest Service Wood Innovation Grant

Gray Organschi Architecture (GOA), co-founded by faculty member Alan Organschi (M.Arch ‘88) and Lisa Gray (M.Arch '87), has been awarded a $250,000 United States Forest Service Wood Innovation Grant for their work in developing mass timber and bio-based assemblies for mid-rise urban construction and promoting regenerative material supply chains in the forest-rich Northeastern United States. In a new collaboration with their project partners at the Northern Forest Center, GOA’s Timber City Research Initiative seeks to link underutilized northern forests and rural workforces to the region’s growing demand for dense, sustainable urban buildings.

Gray Organschi Architecture is part of two interdisciplinary design/development teams that have received an additional half million dollars in related US Forest Service Wood Innovation awards. These funds will provide added support for ongoing efforts to implement mass timber construction systems in regional cities like New Haven, CT. The first project, with Acme Timber, LLC, will develop structural and environmental strategies to increase height and density of existing low-rise, unreinforced masonry urban buildings and neighborhoods with mass timber “overbuilds.” The second grant, with Spiritos Properties and the Beulah Land Development Corporation, seeks to apply new timber construction technologies to affordable housing in New Haven’s Dixwell neighborhood.