Global Membership Council Webinar Series: Mass Timber Construction

Please Note that this event time is in Eastern Daylight Time. 

Host: Annie Lou von Mizener, Building Technology Rep, Simpson Strong-Tie and Member of the Global Membership Council Governing Committee

Panelists:

• Ashley Delgado, Residential Energy Plan Reviewer, Washington, DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs

Ashley Delgado is a Certified Building Performance professional with Building Performance Institute (BPI), ICC Residential Energy Inspector/Plans Reviewer, and USGBC LEED Green Associate. She is a Residential Energy Plan Reviewer for the District of Columbia (D.C.)’s municipality government in the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA). As well as the current President of D.C. Code Officials Association (DCCOA), a local chapter of the ICC in Washington, D.C.

• Takashi Imamura, Counsellor for Building Regulations, Housing Bureau, Japan Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism

Mr. Imamura supervises the building regulations in Japan, including the fire safety and structural safety standards under the Building Standard Law. He is also in charge of the Building Energy Efficiency Act, which was fully revised in June 2022 to strengthen the Japanese energy efficiency standards in the housing and building sectors.

After joining the Japanese Ministry of Construction of in 1992, he has had a close relation with ICC and one of its predecessors, ICBO, for a long time. He has been engaged in many legislative measures, including a number of revisions of the Building Standard Law and the Act for Promoting Seismic Retrofitting of Buildings, as well as the enactment of the Housing Quality Assurance Act.

He has accomplished introduction of building confirmation/inspection system by private sector, introduction of performance-based building code, establishment of housing quality indication system, strengthening of structural regulations after the scandal involving falsification of structural calculation documents, relaxation of fire safety regulations to promote the use of wood, and relaxation of regulations to promote the utilization of existing buildings.

From 2007, he was seconded to UNESCO Headquarters in Paris for three years to establish the International Platform for Reducing Earthquake Disasters (IPRED). He was also transferred to the Cabinet Secretariat of Japan in 2016 to supervise the world cultural heritage, Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution.

He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1990. He also received a Master of Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School in 2001.

• Boris Iskra, National Codes & Standard Manager, Forest & Wood Products Australia

Boris Iskra has an extensive understanding of the Australian forest and wood products sector with over 30 years of direct involvement.  He is the National Codes & Standards Manager for Forest & Wood Products Australia where his role is to coordinate the development and review of Australian timber standards, and associated building standards and codes, on behalf of the Australian timber industry.  He was principally involved with, and coordinated, the Building Code of Australia (BCA) submission to allow timber-framed and massive timber buildings to be constructed up to 25 metres in effective height as Deemed-to-Satisfy (DTS) solutions; typically, eight-storeys. This change to the BCA now permits all classes of buildings, such as residential, school, hospital and aged-care buildings, to be constructed using structural timber elements.

Boris holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Structural) degree and a Graduate Diploma in Building Fire Safety and Risk Engineering.

• Jason Smart, PE, Director, Fire Engineering, American Wood Council

Since joining AWC in 2013, Jason has led numerous projects related to fire safety and acoustical performance of wood construction, while serving on various standards committees which promulgate standards referenced in U.S. model building codes.  During the development of the U.S. tall mass timber code provisions from 2017 through 2019, he also provided technical support to the ICC Ad-Hoc Committee on Tall Wood Buildings and testimony to the applicable code development committees regarding the development and execution of multiple fire test series which were deemed necessary to justify ICC code change proposals.

Prior to joining AWC, Jason worked for the International Code Council Evaluation Service (ICC-ES), where he evaluated a variety of building products, including wood products and related components and systems, for equivalency and compliance with U.S. model code provisions.  He also worked three years at the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) as a Project Engineer / Building Code Specialist prior to his tenure at ICC-ES.  Jason is a licensed professional engineer and a graduate of Virginia Tech with MS and BS degrees in Civil Engineering, and Wood Science and Forest Products, respectively.

• Russ Vaagen, Founder & CEO, Vaagen Timbers

Run of Show: