TORONTO — The University of Toronto has announced plans to build a 14-storey academic tower made of timber.
The tower will be built above the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport and will house a number of academic units, including Rotman executive programs, the Munk School of Global Affairs, the Faculty of Arts and Science’s Master in Mathematical Finance program and the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, said a U of T statement.
The university is working on the project with Patkau Architects of Vancouver in partnership with MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects (MJMA) of Toronto and Blackwell Structural Engineers, all of whom worked together on the Goldring Centre, which opened in 2014.
The Goldring Centre was designed to be the base for the tower so there will be no need to dig deeper in order to build the taller structure.
Benefits of timber include it requires little production, it’s lightweight, it absorbs carbon and it’s recyclable, said the statement.
The Ontario government has established a tall wood building incentive program and a Mass Timber Institute (MTI) to study the building practices and benefits of wood construction.
The U of T project will promote collaboration between urban-focused academics across the university and beyond through the MTI and the university’s School of Cities, the university said.
The tower will be built with cross-laminated timber, a method that allows producers to create larger, stronger wood pieces in more consistent dimensions, the statement indicated.
The project is still in the design phase of development, awaiting zoning changes to increase the height allowance for tall wood buildings. Construction could begin at the end of 2019.
Recent Comments
comments for this post are closed