Vancouver City Council Approves Changes to Building Bylaws Permitting 18-Story Mass Timber Buildings

The Vancouver, BC, City Council on Tuesday approved an amendment to Vancouver’s building bylaw which raises the allowable height of mass-timber buildings to 18 stories in keeping with changes to BC’s building code introduced in April, which increased the height from 12 stories, The Vancouver Sun reported (6-12-24).

Mass-timber construction, which replaces concrete and steel with engineered timber components—cross-laminated panels and glue-laminated beams assembled from stress-rated lumber—has evolved in stages. Ryan McClanaghan, a project architect with Vancouver firm Dialog, told The Vancouver Sun that “It makes a huge difference.”

BC’s first buildings, such as the 18-story Brock Commons student residence at the University of BC, had to be approved by engineers as one-off exceptions to the building code, “and there was a lot of extra work to prove (them) out,” McClanaghan explained. “What (this) does is it reduces the risk of projects. Previously, you would have to have an ‘alternative solution,’ an engineering judgment by your building-code (officials) or fire engineer, to prove out that you’re (safely) outside of the allowable building code.”

As a result of the Vancouver City Council’s approval to the city’s building rules, environmentally friendly mass-timber buildings will soon be able to stand even taller in the skyline.