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Interior view of False Creek Flats Office Building building from top of multi storey half turn stairwell, showing brightly lit interior with communal and isolated working area, with mass timber construction, including: glue-laminated timber (Glulam), nail-laminated timber (NLT), and abundant millwork

False Creek Flats Office Building

Location: Vancouver, B.C.
Architect: Proscenium Architecture + Interiors Inc.
Completion: 2014
Photo credit: KK Law

Size
10,219 square metres

Owners
PCI Developments
Low Tide Properties

Structural Engineer
Fast + Epp

Engineered Wood Fabricator
Mercer Mass Timber LLC

Structural systems
Mass timber hybrid
Post-and-beam

Project materials
Glue-laminated timber
Nail-laminated timber (NLT)

A healthy workspace for a new era of worker

The abundant use of glass and open spaces makes wood visible from every vantage point, including the open wood staircase that is the building’s central feature.

Wood chosen for performance, renewability and aesthetics

The four-storey building, situated in Vancouver’s burgeoning high-tech hub of False Creek Flats, is constructed using NLT, a simple yet economical construction technology that’s been used in commercial buildings for more than 150 years.

To deliver an economical and flexible structural solution, the architects devised a glue-laminated timber (glulam) post-and-beam system for the primary four-storey structure. Nail lamination, or mill decking, as they called it a century ago, was used in industrial and commercial buildings. The floor assemblies were old-meets-new technology—modular prefabricated NLT panels—craned in to the site and covered with a plywood layer but left exposed to the view from below. The floor design is configured so that wood features prominently from every view.

The heavy timber building was designed to provide an enhanced workspace for employees, with an emphasis on natural light and air-control systems that allow the building to be 70 per cent more efficient than a conventional office building. A system draws fresh air throughout the building and expansive windows flood the interior spaces with daylight.

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