Mass Timber Construction and Technology to Merge in New Mass-Timber Office Building in Vancouver, BC

Texas-based Hines, a privately owned global real estate investment firm founded in 1957 with a
presence in 25 countries, has linked with PC Urban of Vancouver to build the largest and tallest mass-timber office building in Western Canada. The current site of the T3 Mount Pleasant is on land owned by the City of Vancouver and occupied by the Simon Fraser University Annex, a 1928 heritage structure that will be incorporated into the new office building. The building will be built of mass timber, where engineered wood replaces concrete. The building will also be certified Wirescore, which means it will have the world’s most robust digital and communications technology and be “future-proofed” to link into whatever new technology becomes available. T3 Mount Pleasant will be a 10-storey structure with 196,000-square-feet of leased office space. Construction is expected to begin in 2022 and be completed in 2024. Apps said many office tenants like the authenticity of old brick-and-beam buildings, but such structures do not work well with contemporary technology. App noted that building with mass timber offer more than aesthetics. Adding that employees exposed to wood during their workday have higher levels of well-being and take less sick leave, studies have shown. Timber also has natural anti-bacterial and anti-microbial properties.