Extreme Buildings: Tall Timber at UBC

The world’s tallest wooden building is under construction on the UBC campus in Vancouver.

Brock Commons Student Residence will be 18 storeys or 174 feet high.  The $51.5 million project is slated to provide housing for 404 students.

UBC_wood Res

It will have a hybrid structural system with a one-storey concrete podium, two concrete cores and 17 storeys of mass timber.  The timber structure carries the vertical loads and the two concrete cores give lateral stability.

UBC_wood frameing

One of the mandates of the project is to demonstrate a cost effective structural system of wood and concrete that will compare to traditional concrete and steel construction.

The building is actually three times the current building code height limit for wood buildings.  Getting clearance to build involved a peer review process with structural engineers, fire safety experts, scientists, UBC building authorities and firefighters.

The project is a aiming for a minimum LEED Gold certification and is scheduled for a Summer 2017 completion.

 

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