Forest Products Laboratory
The Forest Products Laboratory is a government research facility in Madison, Wisconsin, focused on wood science and forest materials. The building follows an International Style design with a U-shaped layout, a six-story central section, large windows, terrazzo floors, and American Walnut trim throughout.
The facility opened in 1910, bringing together researchers who had previously worked in scattered locations across different colleges and institutions. Over the following decades, work done here led to advances in particle board, wood adhesion, wood preservatives, and fire resistance standards.
The building stands on Gifford Pinchot Drive, named after the American conservationist who shaped early US forest policy. Inside, each floor showcases a different wood species worked into the trim and finishes, making the building itself a quiet display of American timber.
The building sits on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison and is easy to reach from the city center. The grounds around it are open to the public, but the interior is a working research facility and not set up as a visitor attraction.
The laboratory once built full-scale structures, including a complete house and a carriage, to observe how wood behaves in real outdoor conditions over time. The data gathered from those tests helped architects and builders improve the way they design wooden structures.
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