MTI Newsletter: July 2020
News From MTI
Hello Mass Timber Colleagues! This month we are very pleased to feature another mass timber project in Ontario: the mixed-used building at Yonge and Charles in Toronto.
Mixed Use at Yonge and Charles (Toronto)
Toronto’s first mass timber building creates an inviting, light-filled environment for offices and retail while respecting the rich context of its Yonge Street neighbourhood. The design retains and restores an 1880s heritage façade located near the heart of downtown, just south of Yonge and Bloor, as part of a new, three-storey mixed-use development. The building integrates the character of the original heritage structure with new contemporary wings sensitive to the proportions and scale of the retained façade.
The building uses innovative mass timber elements, most notably as elevator shafts and exit stairs. This reduces the need for poured concrete construction in favour of carbon-friendly wood construction. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) floors and glue-laminated (glulam) columns and beams create warm and inviting spaces, including a double-height atrium on the second level, flooded with natural light through a large skylight.
As with any new technology, there were many challenges in establishing the appropriate approvals and building frameworks. The architects required numerous alternate code solutions as mass timber construction has not been fully incorporated into the Ontario Building Code. The innovative nature of the structure earned the project the 2019 Innovation Award from the Ontario Wood Design Awards.
Brook McIlroy worked closely with ERA Architects on the heritage restoration and with Blackwell Engineers on the design of the mass timber structure.
Updates from our Partners
- Interested in the forest sustainability debate? In a new paper published in the journal Climatic Change, Dr. Jay Malcolm at the University of Toronto reports that harvesting for bioenergy in old boreal forests can incur a carbon debt, like clearing land in other parts of the world for bioenergy can. Congratulations to Dr. Malcolm and co-authors!
- On June 25, Mark Gaglione from EllisDon gave an excellent talk about mass timber for YCL Calgary. Congratulations, Mark!
