Wood Chips

PROJECTS TO WATCH

CANADA

IMAGE: Courtesy of the Government of British Columbia

Victoria, BC The current Royal BC Museum in Victoria will close its doors this September, as a brand new museum will be rebuilt using mass timber. The new museum will be one of the first government projects of this size to include local First Nations on the team. First Nations will participate in both project development and delivery, including design influence to reflect the Lekwungen peoples and members of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations. The new museum is expected to open in 2030.

Kelowna, BC Faction Projects heads up the design for a four-story, mixed-use industrial/retail/office building in Kelowna’s north end. The Exchange, as it’s called, offers a vibrant marketplace, continuing the tradition of the Kelowna Growers Exchange, a farmers’ co-op originally conceived in 1913. The building’s retail space occupies the main floor, and the office and amenity space encompass the upper levels. The vaulted lobby offers a spacious and well-lit welcome for visitors, and a rooftop patio provides access to outdoor amenities and views of the surrounding valley. The building will feature NLT construction for the floor and roof panels, supported by a glulam or PSL post-and-beam substructure. It’s scheduled for completion in winter 2023.

IMAGE: Courtesy of Smoke Architecture

Toronto, ON Centennial College’s six-story, 150,000-sq.ft. addition to its existing Progress campus is moving along. The college collaborated with Smoke Architecture, DIALOG, and EllisDon to design and build the first zero-carbon, mass timber higher-education building in Canada. The building will demonstrate the college’s commitment to reconciliation, Indigenous education, and sustainable design. It’s due to open in 2023.

UNITED STATES

IMAGE: Courtesy of DLR Group

Austin, TX Ground broke in February this year for T3 Eastside in Austin. This mass timber building will consist of 92,000 sq.ft. of office space and 9,200 sq.ft. of residential space. The project is located at 1200 East 4th Street and will be constructed using sustainably sourced wood. T3 Eastside is set to open in summer 2023.

Baltimore, MD Under Armour will have a new 280,000-sq.ft. global headquarters at its Port Covington campus. Its design team includes Gensler, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, and Kimley-Horn. The headquarters will house 1,500 corporate employees and feature a flagship store, a track and field facility, a sports field, and a basketball court. The location – currently known as Teammate Building 2 – will be constructed using mass timber and incorporate geothermal and water-reduction technology, with the goal of achieving net zero operation. Full occupancy is expected by 2025.

IMAGE: Courtesy of Gensler

INTERNATIONAL

IMAGE: Courtesy of Studio Marco Vermeulen

Eindhoven, Netherlands Studio Marco Vermeulen has released its preliminary design for The Dutch Mountains, two connected hybrid skyscrapers made from CLT and concrete. The building – set in the city’s railway zone – will comprise two rectangular towers, 130 m and 100 m tall. The CLT will be sourced from sustainably managed forests, and will be largely prefabricated and assembled on-site.

Gothenburg, Sweden The World of Volvo is driving forward. Henning Larsen’s design of the 236,805-sq.ft. (22,000 sq.m) new facility is expected to be completed in late 2023. Home to both Volvo Group and Volvo Cars, the facility will function as the host for a number of events, including exhibitions, talks, conferences, and music. Timber construction started in the spring last year. Beams and columns will be built from glulam timber, and the floor slabs will be made from locally sourced CLT.

IMAGE: Courtesy of Henning Larsen

We design, engineer, manufacture and install Wood100®DLT, a 100% wood, no glue DLT

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Architects, engineers and builders are realising the potential of Wood100® DLT as a truly healthy, sustainable and energy efficient building product.

Collaborating with architects on detail solutions across the design process.

JURORS

Donald Chong

Design Principal HDR

www.hdrinc.com/ca

Tom Chung

Principal Leers Weinzapfel Associates

www.lwa-architects.com

Marie-Odile Marceau

Principal McFarland Marceau Architects

www.mmal.ca

2021–22 Wood Design & Building Award Winners

As the pandemic put a halt to many in-person events once again this year, the jury was relegated to the Zoom room for the 2021–22 Wood Design & Building Awards.

Each year, three jurors individually review and score all the submissions. Then, on award decision day, they come together to discuss and debate the entries that received the highest scores. This year, we welcomed Donald Chong, design principal at HDR; Tom Chung, principal at Leers Weinzapfel Associates; and MarieOdile Marceau, principal at McFarland Marceau Architects.

Despite the virtual platform, our jurors were up to the task. Their expertise and knowledge came through as they separated the exceptional from the expected. And, without question, they separated wisely.

However, our jury was discerning when it came to the top prize: the Honor Award. Only two entrants received this distinction. First, 85 Social Housing at Cornellà in Barcelona, Spain, stood out as a “brilliant piece of architecture” for the jurors, who noted that it’s difficult to do good design in social housing. “It’s robust, industrial, and beautiful, and makes the spaces so human,” they said.

Second, Parc de la Chute-Montmorency – Experience Chute in Québec City, QC, was, according to one juror, “able to make the wood talk about its historical use and importance.” Said another, “It does a lot with a few moves. The viewing platform...and passage and gathering circulation allow people to pause and slow down their experience.”

The jurors’ wise choices continued, bestowing three Merits and nine Citations on an eclectic array of deserving projects, including a community center, a beach house, and a branch headquarters.

New to the awards program this year is Against the Grain. This is not awarded to a structure. This award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to the wood industry. You can read about this year’s recipient, Dr. Nancy Mackin, on p. 29.

In partnership with the Canadian Wood Council, we’d like to thank everyone who participated in the 2021–22 Wood Design & Building Awards program. Congratulations to our winners!

We’d also like to give a special thank you to our jurors for their time and dedication, and to the program’s sponsors. We couldn’t do it without you.