The Province of British Columbia to Fund 12 Mass Timber Demonstration and Research Projects

The Province of British Columbia has announced that it is funding 12 mass timber demonstration and research projects and has established a new advisory council to accelerate the adoption of mass timber building systems, as part of the Province’s economic recovery. The advisory council is a group of experts from urban planning and development, First Nations, forest products industry, environmental non-profits, academia, and local governments. The research projects will study mass timber’s fire performance, the costs relative to steel and concrete, and carbon benefits. All project innovations and best practices will be broadly shared to promote learning and further advance mass timber use provincewide. 837 Beatty Street is one of the selected projects and was designed by Macfarlane Biggar Architects + Designers. The $4.2-million investment in mass timber demonstration projects and research will help urban planners and developers adopt mass timber building systems by supporting the incremental or first-time costs of design development, research, permitting, and construction activities. The demonstration projects reflect a range of different building types and approaches to using mass timber including a firehall with strict post-disaster requirements, an Indigenous health and culture center and low-cost housing on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.