Walmart Home Office Campus

Bentonville, AR

Project of the Year Winner

Project Overview

At the time of construction, this was the largest volume of mass timber construction in North America — a defining moment for both the ironworking trade and the broader construction industry. This groundbreaking project combined structural steel erection with the precision and care required for mass timber installation at a scale rarely seen before, delivering a hybrid structure that is as beautiful as it is efficient. All mass timber was sourced locally from Southern Yellow Pine, a renewable resource grown and harvested in the surrounding region.

Scope of Work

Complete structural erection of approximately 1.2 million square feet of mass timber and structural steel buildings — roughly half of the total campus footprint. This included the installation of all structural steel components such as columns, beams, joists, and metal decking, as well as the full erection of mass timber elements including glulam columns and beams, and cross-laminated timber (CLT) floor and roof panels. The team managed the interface between structural steel and mass timber with precision, ensuring alignment and performance across multiple mid-rise buildings under a highly accelerated construction schedule.

Challenges Overcome

Mass timber deliveries began slipping, creating a cascading risk to the entire schedule. With no flexibility on the end date, the team completely restructured the field execution plan — transforming a standard single-crew, 40-hour-per-week schedule into a high-efficiency strategy deploying two cranes and two raising gangs per building, running six 10-hour days per week. This decisive pivot absorbed the delay entirely in the field, delivering the project on time without compromise.

Innovation

The team utilized composite crews, combining union ironworkers and union carpenters to align specific skillsets to the unique installation needs of the project. Ironworkers led the erection scope — executing rigging, heavy picks, and structural connections with precision — while targeted carpenter support maintained installation momentum during timber work phases. This collaborative labor strategy demonstrated how the union workforce can solve real-world challenges on the most demanding projects.

Safety Performance

Every crew member took personal ownership of the safety culture on-site. Pre-task planning, daily safety huddles, and stop-work authority were embedded in how the team worked. Crews remained vigilant in high-risk scenarios such as working at height, rigging massive glulam members and CLT panels, and coordinating crane picks in active zones.