The annual Mass Timber+ Conference invites architects, engineers, contractors, owners, and others to explore the benefits and uses of mass timber in construction. The 2026 conference will feature sessions with case studies from across the country and tours of projects in the Philadelphia area that highlight this sustainable building material. During the session “Where Learning Meets Nature: Mass Timber’s Impact on Student Experience and Performance,” Senior Associate and Sustainability Director Margaret Sledge, AIA, LEED AP BD+C and Jeff Jansing, PE, (Senior Principal, Walter P Moore) will share the design and engineering of the Rosa O. Valdes STEM + Innovation Center at Greenhill School. They will be joined by Joe Mayo, AIA, Associate Principal at Mahlum, who will offer perspectives on another mass timber K12 project — Seattle’s Alki Elementary School — as well as WoodWorks’ Michael Muller, PE, SE, who will moderate the session.

One of the first mass timber buildings in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, the Rosa O. Valdes STEM + Innovation Center is a home for middle and upper school math, science, and innovation at Greenhill. The early selection of mass timber as the primary building material and structure responded to the priority of putting sustainable design on display in a new STEM learning environment, while nurturing creativity and curiosity with transparency and views. Attendees will learn how the project team navigated challenges with sourcing timber in a post-pandemic economy, as well as processes for achieving aesthetic and functional goals related to future flexibility, daylighting and acoustical comfort, resilience and life-safety, and more.

Learn more about the session and conference, in Philadelphia October 6-8, below: