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Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy

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Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy

#131

Post by surfingdino »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #128
dig1 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, it's true. In my opinion, this is the hypocrisy of the modern 'green' agenda - we endlessly discuss pollution, yet we cling to the comforts of modern life, many of which cause even greater harm.

Personally I'd love to take more trains instead of planes, and bike more instead of driving, but the system (at least in the US) just isn't set up for that. Train travel is expensive and sparse and slow, biking most places is uncomfortable and unsafe due to crappy infrastructure.

I agree. Trains are often a more efficient, more comfortable, and greener way to travel. I would love to be able to take them more often on weekends here in the UK, but they are expensive to the point of costing more than air travel, which makes no sense.

Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy

#132

Post by Etheryte »

noisy_boy wrote: post #126

Beautiful. Also, what about fire hazard? Ctrl+F fire had zero matches.

Not familiar with the specific wood composite used in this construction, but generally wood composites fare really well in this regard. You can mix fire retardants into the adhesives and they char, which creates a sort of protective layer. They're not fireproof, but they're both hard to get going and they usually burn very slow once they do. Another good property is that they burn predictably, they don't have catastrophic failures, but gradual ones.

Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy

#133

Post by darkfloo »

surfingdino wrote: post #131
TulliusCicero wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I'd love to take more trains instead of planes, and bike more instead of driving, but the system (at least in the US) just isn't set up for that. Train travel is expensive and sparse and slow, biking most places is uncomfortable and unsafe due to crappy infrastructure.

I agree. Trains are often a more efficient, more comfortable, and greener way to travel. I would love to be able to take them more often on weekends here in the UK, but they are expensive to the point of costing more than air travel, which makes no sense.

Planes are cheaper as a function of the infrastructure needed to allow their use (? Feel free to correct me). As long as we allow airplanes companies to not pay for the long term externalities that they are creating planes will stay cheaper.

Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy

#135

Post by wkat4242 »

morsch wrote: post #114

I agree it looks nice, but dressing up an airport in sustainable materials won't materially change the fact that a flight Boston - NYC (one-way!) blasts through ~0.7t[1] of CO2eq of your yearly budget of 1-3t[2]. It won't change the fact, but I'm sure it'll make it easier to forget or ignore. [1] https://co2.myclimate.org/en/portfolios?calculation_id=75775... [2] e.g. https://ieep.eu/publications/carbon-inequality-in…

It boggles my mind why the US doesn't simply offer high-speed trains for easy distances like those.

That whole Northeast is just screaming for it with easily managable distances. Boston, NYC, Philly, Baltimore, DC.. All easily high-speed-trainable. Boston to Portland too, for that matter.

Instead of spending 1 hour queueing at the airport, spend one hour on the train and you're there.

Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy

#136

Post by xattt »

swalling wrote: post #66

The wood is pretty, but as someone who uses this terminal, the key improvement is that they raised the ceiling and significantly increased the amount of natural light. Here's a good photo of what it looked like before: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portland_Internation... The major functional drawback is that wayfinding for both arrivals and departures is much worse. The overall flow of foot traffic is way…

> … wayfinding … is much worse

I assumed they would have detached any signange hanging from the ceiling before lifting it. The text would be too small to read otherwise.

Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy

#137

Post by ddtaylor »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #125
morsch wrote: post #114

I agree it looks nice, but dressing up an airport in sustainable materials won't materially change the fact that a flight Boston - NYC (one-way!) blasts through ~0.7t[1] of CO2eq of your yearly budget of 1-3t[2]. It won't change the fact, but I'm sure it'll make it easier to forget or ignore. [1] https://co2.myclimate.org/en/portfolios?calculation_id=75775... [2] e.g. https://ieep.eu/publications/carbon-inequality-in…

It is however looking much nicer. For that reason alone I would love to see more projects like this.

Sometimes, dressing up a problem can breed apathy and desensitize people to harsh realities.

Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy

#138

Post by olalonde »

dig1 wrote: post #123
morsch wrote: post #114

I agree it looks nice, but dressing up an airport in sustainable materials won't materially change the fact that a flight Boston - NYC (one-way!) blasts through ~0.7t[1] of CO2eq of your yearly budget of 1-3t[2]. It won't change the fact, but I'm sure it'll make it easier to forget or ignore. [1] https://co2.myclimate.org/en/portfolios?calculation_id=75775... [2] e.g. https://ieep.eu/publications/carbon-inequality-in…

Sadly, it's true. In my opinion, this is the hypocrisy of the modern 'green' agenda - we endlessly discuss pollution, yet we cling to the comforts of modern life, many of which cause even greater harm.

Isn't clinging to the comforts of modern life worth heating the planet a bit? It doesn't seem like an unreasonable tradeoff to me.

Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy

#139

Post by wkat4242 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #121
morsch wrote: post #114

I agree it looks nice, but dressing up an airport in sustainable materials won't materially change the fact that a flight Boston - NYC (one-way!) blasts through ~0.7t[1] of CO2eq of your yearly budget of 1-3t[2]. It won't change the fact, but I'm sure it'll make it easier to forget or ignore. [1] https://co2.myclimate.org/en/portfolios?calculation_id=75775... [2] e.g. https://ieep.eu/publications/carbon-inequality-in…

Not to mention, besides the wood material being, well, wood... it's a relatively small amount when you think about it, and the amount of processing involved which basically turn it into a different material altogether outweighs any sustainability. Plus, with all the glues / epoxies / whatever they use, that wood-based material isn't going to be degradable at all. It puts me in mind of "bamboo" products, which also re…

> Plus, with all the glues / epoxies / whatever they use, that wood-based material isn't going to be degradable at all.

That's kinda the point though. You don't want it degrading in situ. That's why we treat wood.

In a situation indoors like here it will suffer less but still.. I used to live in a wooden house and the maintenance was a PITA. Having to repaint every 5 years or so. And that was wood that was treated already.

Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy

#140

Post by wkat4242 »

swalling wrote: post #66

The wood is pretty, but as someone who uses this terminal, the key improvement is that they raised the ceiling and significantly increased the amount of natural light. Here's a good photo of what it looked like before: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portland_Internation... The major functional drawback is that wayfinding for both arrivals and departures is much worse. The overall flow of foot traffic is way…

Oh yeah that was a dark hole. Brr.

Much better now.

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