A Gensler and Thornton Tomasetti-led data center project that highlights the enormous potential for similar environmentally-minded hybrid mass timber designs in the booming typology is on its way toward completion in the suburbs of Northern Virginia. 

The firm is working with Microsoft to deliver a pair of new centers made using CLT materials. Microsoft says their presence will reduce the buildings’ overall carbon footprint by 35% compared to conventional steel construction, and another 65% compared to those made from precast concrete—an important step as such projects gain priority in the new data-driven economy.

Video courtesy of Microsoft

Microsoft has previously committed to becoming fully 'carbon-negative' in its construction footprint by decade’s end, developing a plan that has since seen setbacks due to the volume and pace of expansion and a subsequently high rate of 'indirect emissions' skyrocketing by 30.9% over just three years.  

Another innovation meant to combat this is the incorporation of an alternative concrete product made by CarbonCure and an algae-based product called Prometheus Materials. 

Microsoft, which Thornton Tomasetti’s New York-based associate Thomas Hooker believes is in a "unique position" as the nation’s largest investors in data centers, calls this effort an "all-hands-on-deck task."

Gensler earned a reported $1.83 billion worth of revenues last year in part driven by its embrace of data centers, helping place it in the lead of the top 300 performing firms globally. Nationwide, as a recent LinkedIn survey has shown, the market for data centers is expected to reach $418 billion by the year 2030.