Archinect - News

Mass timber pedestrian bridge rises at Toronto's George Brown College

2023-04-28T14:26:00-04:00

Canadian construction company PCL Construction is celebrating a major milestone in the construction of George Brown College’s new Limberlost Place on Toronto’s waterfront, with the installation of a mass timber pedestrian bridge.

Standing 65 feet above street level, the structure connects level five of Limberlost Place to level six of the college’s Daphne Cockwell Center for Health Sciences. The 10-story Limberlost Place is reportedly set to be the first mass timber, net-zero carbon emissions institutional building of its kind in Ontario. It was designed by a team consisting of Moriyama and Teshima Architects and Acton Ostry Architects. The building is expected to be completed by 2024 and will be open for classes in January 2025.

Video via PCL Construction on YouTube

The pedestrian bridge stretches approximately 70 feet and is made up of two glue-laminated trusses and four cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels. Individual CLT pieces were prefabricated at an off-site location befor...

World's tallest wood building constructed in Vancouver

2016-09-16T13:10:00-04:00

The Brock Commons at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver has been topped off, making it the world’s tallest wood building. The 18-story tower, a student residence, was completed in less than 70 days using prefabricated components. The project was completed four months earlier than expected.

With a concrete podium and two concrete cores, the wood tower is 14 stories taller than any other mass timber, steel and concrete hybrid project in the world. The building was designed by Acton Ostry Architects in collaboration with structural engineers Fast + Epp and tall wood advisor Architekten Hermann Kaufmann of Austria.

“Taller wood buildings offer tremendous economic and environmental benefits,” states Cees de Jager, general manager of the Binational Softwood Lumber Council, in the press release. “The lessons learned at Brock Commons will help transform the built environment in Canada and around the world.”

Watch a time-lapse video of the construction here:

In related news:

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World’s tallest wooden skyscraper (at least for now) under construction in Vancouver

2015-12-21T17:31:00-05:00

Made possible by a special change in law, a building that is set to claim the title of world’s tallest timber tower is now under construction in Vancouver, Canada. When complete in 2017, the 18-storey (53m) tower, called Brock Commons, will house hundreds of students at the University of British Columbia (UBC). [...] the CAN$51.5m residence is set to be the world’s tallest, beating the 13-storey ‘Origine’ apartment block now being built in Quebec City.

"Earlier this year the provincial government of British Columbia passed a new regulation that allowed UBC to go over timber-structure height limits if the building met rigorous health and safety standards. The architects, Acton Ostry, and UBC building officials helped draft the regulation."

In other tall-wood-building news on Archinect: