Princeton University Embraces Mass Timber in Six New Campus Projects

Princeton University is in the midst of its largest campus expansion since the early 1960’s, with 16 projects currently under construction and targeted for completion by 2029, The Princeton University Alumni Weekly reported in its February 2024 edition. Mass timber is being utilized in many of the structures.

Princeton University Architect Ron McCoy told the magazine that “It’s certainly not growth for growth’s sake—it’s really to meet the mission of the institution,” citing strategic initiatives to increase access for undergraduate students, further commit to the highest level of research and scholarship, and meet campus sustainability goals which include carbon neutrality by 2046.

Six of the projects will be mass timber projects, including the Environmental Studies and School of Engineering and Applied Science complex and Hobson College. Most of the projects are more completely built using mass timber, while the art museum has a mass timber structure in the ceiling, and the Frist Health Center has a hybrid structure incorporating steel and mass timber. “It’s a kind of learning curve for us; more recent projects are more fully mass timber,” McCoy said.

McCoy said his team came to the decision to use mass timber as part of its sustainability efforts, reiterating the University has a goal to be carbon neutral by 2046. One way to achieve that, he said, is to “attack embodied carbon”—or the amount of energy required to extract materials from the earth, create building materials, transport them, and erect them on the site. McCoy told the magazine that mass timber is low in embodied carbon, making it a more sustainable material than materials high in embodied carbon such as steel and concrete.