2150 KEITH DRIVE | The bold design of this 10-storey tall wood office building in Vancouver’s emerging False Creek Flats neighbourhood features a honeycomb-shaped exterior, an expression of the mass timber building’s unique perimeter-braced seismic system. Architect: DIALOG | Structural Engineer: Fast + Epp | Rendering courtesy DIALOG
The long-term goals are to expand the use of mass timber in BC, to overcome impediments to the development of mass timber expertise and construction, and to lock in BC’s global leadership in advanced wood products, technologies and services.
These projects are supported through Stronger BC, British Columbia’s Economic Recovery Plan. The Mass Timber Demonstration Program (MTDP) provides funding for incremental costs in the design and construction of buildings that showcase emerging or new mass timber and mass timber hybrid building systems and construction processes. The program supports jobs and employment recovery in the design, engineering, construction, and product manufacturing sector.
The learnings gleaned from these projects will benefit the sector broadly and will:
Exposed mass timber construction will give the First Nations Health Authority a new Metro Vancouver office that envelops employees in the biophilic benefits of wood and pays homage to the Coast Salish people’s plank house tradition.
The building is primarily an office, along with social spaces for meetings, gatherings, cultural activities, education, and demonstrations.
Rendering courtesy of DIALOG
This fire station for the District of Saanich is one of the first mass timber buildings in Canada to target a zero-carbon building standard while being fully equipped for post-disaster response. It will serve as a demonstration project and template for future post-disaster buildings.
The project will target LEED Gold (with the aspiration to reach Platinum), CaGBC Zero Carbon Building Standard, and the BC Energy Step Code Level 2.
Rendering courtesy of hcma
MAC is one of the first affordable multi-family rental buildings in Canada to use CLT and the first building in Canada to use CLT panels and cold-formed steel (CFS) in a wall-supported design. CFS adds to the project’s cost efficiencies, cleverly eliminating the need for additional beams and complicated connections. The demonstration project shows how mass timber construction can deliver cost-effective, quick and high-quality housing solutions. By embedding CFS framing into the walls the design eliminates the need for additional beams and complicated connections—a key contributor to cutting construction costs.
Rendering courtesy of Main and Cordova project team
This 21-storey mass timber residential building, Prototype, demonstrates how low-carbon tall wood construction is a viable option for purpose-built rental housing. Located in Vancouver’s vibrant Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, the project aims to deliver a mix of units affordable to moderate-income residents. As its name suggests, Prototype sets out to be a model for future tall wood housing projects that are sustainable, cost-effective and replicable. This includes optimizing wood usage, minimizing the number of elements required for each floor and connection designs to reduce crane time and quicken construction.
Rendering courtesy of Henriquez Partners Architects
This four-storey mixed‐use industrial/retail/office building will help boost the revitalization of Kelowna’s north end of downtown. The Exchange envisions a vibrant marketplace—home to a diverse mix of makers who proudly put their products, services, and their process on display. This local market approach continues the tradition of the Kelowna Growers Exchange, a farmers’ co-op originally conceived in 1913 that quickly became a cornerstone to the region’s early economic growth. More than a century later, The Exchange aspires to be a creative commercial hub for the rapidly growing Okanagan Valley.
Rendering courtesy of Faction Projects
The bold design of this 10-storey tall wood office building in Vancouver’s emerging False Creek Flats neighbourhood features a honeycomb-shaped exterior, an expression of the mass timber building’s unique perimeter-braced seismic system.
This project will use a variety of engineered wood products to achieve its design goals. The wood components and systems include glue-laminated timber (glulam) beams, columns, and braces, cross-laminated timber (CLT) floor panels, shear walls and balconies.
Rendering courtesy of DIALOG
Old and new unite in this century-old historic timber warehouse to be topped with a four-storey mass timber addition of modern commercial offices. 837 Beatty Street is an existing three-storey former warehouse located in downtown Vancouver and is part of the distinctive Block 68 collection of historic warehouses. This Edwardian industrial heritage building constructed in 1911 was part of the early twentieth-century building boom that saw numerous warehouses constructed near False Creek across the once Canadian Pacific Railway’s Yaletown landholdings.
Rendering courtesy of the office of mcfarlane biggar architects + designers
The Province is providing funding for 12 mass timber demonstration and research projects and has established a new advisory council to accelerate the adoption of mass timber building systems, as part of the Province’s economic recovery.
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