Designers of the Bell Museum + Planetarium at the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus want the new facility to be as natural as possible.
When completed in the summer of 2018, the $79.2 million complex will showcase the state's natural history — and be made out of it.
About 40 percent of the new museum's exterior is covered with locally sourced, thermally modified timber, or "cooked wood" as it has been dubbed. Designers believe the project is the largest commercial-scale use of thermally modified white pine in the country.
"It's a beautiful wood, white pine," said Dave Dimond, a principal at the Minneapolis office of architecture firm Perkins+Will, which designed the new museum.
"The challenge always has been that you can't use pine outdoors – that it has to be protected by the weather," Dimond said. "This is a really new and exciting way to use white pine in a way it's never been used before."
About 21,000 square feet of white pine will be finished being installed this month on the outside of the museum located near Larpenteur and Cleveland avenues near the State Fairgrounds. A portion of the bottom half of the building is clad with steel from the Iron Range.
"The architecture speaks to the story of Minnesota and nature in Minnesota. … White pine is an iconic timber species from Minnesota," said George Weiblen, interim scientific director and curator of plants at the Bell Museum.
The white pine comes from state forest land in Cass Lake, located about 30 minutes from Bemidji, that has been certified by the international nonprofit Forest Stewardship Council for being responsibly managed. One of the focuses for researchers at the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) at the University of Minnesota Duluth is how to help strengthen Minnesota's forestry industry in an environmentally sustainable way. Thermally modified wood is one of the products the group is studying.