Bill Nelson now has the space to crush a 20-foot-long section of a bridge and test the strength of a two-story wall, complete with windows and doors. Down the hall, engineer C.R. Boardman can create, with a few keystrokes, Seattle-like rain or the blistering heat found in Arizona. The Forest Products Laboratory in Madison is ready for the next 100 years of research with the recent opening of the $38 million Centennial Research Facility. The 87,000-square-foot center, nestled on the west side of the UW-Madison campus, is owned and operated by the USDA Forest Service and is a gleaming but functional tribute and improvement to the previous 100 years of research at the FPL.
Office of Strategic Communication