Southface Institute’s 2025 Fulcrum Award Winners
The Southface Institute is proud to recognize this year’s Fulcrum Award recipients, the Georgia Forestry Foundation and Jamestown LP, for their deep Georgia roots and their leadership in demonstrating the market-transformational potential of mass timber construction.
As an organization dedicated to improving building design, performance, and positive interactions between our built environment and our natural environment, our communities, and individuals, Southface champions entities advancing innovative building materials like mass timber.
Mass Timber – Alternatives for Structural Building Materials
Mass timber is an innovative, engineered wood product strong enough to serve as a structural building material, for many types of buildings including mid-rise and high-rise buildings. It can provide a powerful alternative to conventional materials like steel and concrete. Mass timber construction is associated with 25% faster builds, reduced usage of traditional materials like concrete and steel that are inherent carbon-emitters, and can reinforce connections between occupants and nature through biophilic design that highlights human health and well-being.1 While steel and concrete will continue to play essential roles in construction, mass timber provides a complementary solution that stores carbon rather than emitting it, making it a critical tool for climate-forward development.
With Georgia’s population and building stock projected to grow significantly in coming decades, it is more important than ever to elevate sustainable infrastructure solutions. Georgia’s abundance of commercial timberland positions the state for success in scaling mass timber, benefiting local economies, rural landowners, and the broader Southeast region. This year’s Fulcrum Award recipients exemplify how mass timber can work for Georgia and why it matters.
Georgia Forestry Foundation
The Georgia Forestry Foundation works across the state to raise awareness and educate practitioners and foresters on the benefits of building with mass timber through their Mass Timber Hubs with meetings hosted around the state in Atlanta, Savannah, Macon, Columbus, and Athens. These hubs bring together local architecture, engineering, construction, and development teams to spotlight the benefits of mass timber constructions while addressing challenges that may inhibit mass timber utilization.
They also launched their Accelerator program, providing grants for pursuing mass timber construction. The selected project teams will be awarded a combined total of $75,000 in funding and expert technical assistance to explore the use of mass timber. The selected projects showcase a diverse set of residential, educational, and community-focused buildings that champion mass timber and its various benefits. See models for these selected projects are shown below.
Jamestown LP
Jamestown LP remains committed to timber-first designs and regional timber harvesting and production. The company recently committed to a timber-first design with its new mixed-use building at 619 Ponce. The building is Georgia’s first Georgia-grown mass timber building utilizing a regional supply chain and offers unique biophilic design, high ceilings, and exposed timber beams.
The building’s columns, beams, and floor slabs are made of local Southern Yellow Pine sawtimber harvested from Georgia forests, including from timberland Jamestown owns and sustainably manages near Columbus, Georgia. The sawtimber was transported to Georgia-Pacific’s sawmill in Albany, Georgia, where it was converted into lumber. The lumber was then transported to SmartLam’s mass timber plant in Dothan, Alabama, where it was converted into cross laminated timber (CLT) panels and glue laminated columns and beams. The materials were then sent to and erected at the location of 619 Ponce.
The real estate investment manager and service provider demonstrates a Southeastern-focused approach by harvesting from their own timberland in Georgia, then producing the mass timber in Alabama. This innovative building solution reduces the carbon impact of the overall structure and the project’s transportation emissions, while supporting regional mass timber manufacturing and blazing a trail for future Georgia and Southeast projects to follow.
“Our vision for 619 Ponce was to create something that not only showcases the natural beauty of mass timber, but also sets a new standard for sustainable development in the Southeast,” said Michael Phillips, President of Jamestown.
Winter Solstice Celebration and Fulcrum Award Ceremony- Dec. 11th
Join us on Dec. 11th from 5-7pm at the Westside Motor Lounge to celebrate 2025, connect with friends, honor the Fulcrum Awardees, and toast to an impactful 2026.
Tickets available here: Purchase Tickets