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A former shopping center near downtown Los Angeles is getting a makeover thanks to an innovative new design that promises to take CLT building to brand new levels. LEVER Architecture is bringing mass timber construction to LA's Chinatown with a sizeable new office building that will add four new... View full entry
In September 2019, Lynda and Stewart Resnick, owners of LA-based The Wonderful Company, donated $750 million to Caltech to support further environmental sustainability research. This enabled plans to construct a new 80,000-square-foot facility called the Resnick Sustainability Resource Center... View full entry
It’s easy to imagine CLT becoming the next luxury building trend to invade the skylines of rapidly gentrifying cities, giving an eco-friendly excuse for remaking the city in service of maximized profit. [...]
In order for mass timber to truly engage with the regenerative power of forests to help alleviate our current climate predicament, it must be linked to a greater movement towards ecological reformation at all scales.
— Failed Architecture
In his latest piece for Failed Architecture, writer and architect Alexander Hadley takes a critical look at the future economical and environmental impact of the accelerating cross-laminated timber boom. "Building from regenerative materials like trees instead of intensively extracted substances... View full entry
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) develops an online resource for those interested in mass timber use in tall building construction. Thanks to a USDA Forest Service grant, the CTBUH aimed to explore the work and research regarding mass timber and its... View full entry
It appears to be a big week for student center design announcements: after Rice University revealed its pick of Adjaye Associates to replace the Rice Memorial Center in Houston with a three-story structure, now Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University presented renderings for the new Hopkins Student... View full entry
Mitsui Fudosan and Takenaka Corporation are planning to build a 17-story wood-frame office tower in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district. With a proposed height of 70 meters, this would be the tallest wooden building in Japan. — Japan Property Central
Related: A much taller, 70-story wood-framed skyscraper was proposed by Sumitomo Forestry and Nikken Sekkei in 2018 to be built in Tokyo's Marunouchi business district by the year 2041. View full entry
The California Building Standards Commission (CBSC) has adopted a series of new code regulations that pave the way for the state to begin to implement the widespread construction of tall mass timber buildings. In late August, the CBSC moved to advance the adoption of recommendations... View full entry
New York City-based SHoP Architects and Australian technology company Atlassian have unveiled plans for a 40-story tall timber and steel tower slated for a new business-technology district in Sydney, Australia. The 280-foot tower will be wrapped with a diagrid steel tube and staggered... View full entry
After the original Tungestølen Tourist Cabin was destroyed by Cyclone Dagmar, a devastating windstorm that swept over Norway on Christmas 2011, glacier hikers lost a treasured destination. Luster Turlag, a local branch of the Norwegian National Trekking Association, and a small local... View full entry
An innovative multi-family residential development has been proposed for West Vancouver’s Ambleside area, just steps from the waterfront.
A preliminary development application submitted by Delta Land Development and designed by Perkins + Will Architects calls for the redevelopment of 2204 Bellevue Avenue [...].
— Urbanized Vancouver
The proposed eight-story mass timber tower was designed by Perkins and Will for Delta Land Development and aims for Passive House sustainability standards, reports Urbanized Vancouver. One year ago, P+W made headlines with another wooden tower design proposal: Canada Earth Tower could rise up to... View full entry
Despite the fact that mass timber testing has consistently shown that the material performs better than required in fire and structural situations, the government of the United Kingdom is considering imposing new height limitations for mass timber structures in the aftermath of the Grenfell... View full entry
The Quayside project developed for the Toronto waterfront by Alphabet-backed Sidewalk Labs has been officially called off. In a Medium post announcing the death of the project, Sidewalk Labs CEO Daniel L. Doctoroff writes that the economic collapse that has resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic... View full entry
The recent recipients of the 2020 Pritzker Prize, Grafton Architects, have been chosen by the University of Arkansas to partner with Modus Studio to design the Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation. Founders Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara are... View full entry
The government of France is set to require that all new public buildings must be made at least 50% from wood or other sustainable materials from 2022 as it pushes for sustainable urban development.
The local government in Paris had already pledged a greater use of natural materials such as wood, straw and hemp, and any buildings higher than eight storeys built for the 2024 Paris Olympics must be made entirely of timber.
— Global Construction Review
As part of President Emmanuel Macron's climate action plan, a new measure announced by the country's Minister for Towns and Housing Julien Denormandie requires all new public buildings financed by the French State to contain at least 50% wood or other organic material, such as straw or hemp, by... View full entry
There is cross-laminated timber (CLT), which looks like inch-thick strips of heartwood arranged like a Jenga set to produce a block that is pretty much the definition of the word solid. Or glu-lam, used to make structural beams that are like extremely strong plywood, and LVL—laminated veneer lumber—which makes excellent heavy beams and had formed the skeleton of the apartment building. — National Geographic
Saul Elbein dives into the growing industry of mass timber and talks with architects, both abroad and in the U.S., that are already using the new materials to design buildings of today. Elbein also chats with those imaging cities of the future, full of "standardized, customizable, mid-rise... View full entry
