Six-storey wood buildings ‘a game-changer’

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Six-storey wood buildings ‘a game-changer’


Dec. 01 2014

By JENNIFER LEWINGTON



Read More: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...ticle21850652/

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Under recent and pending building codes revisions in several Canadian jurisdictions, wood will be permitted in multiresidential and office buildings up to six storeys (compared with four storeys in most jurisdictions) with extra fire safety safeguards.

- “It is a real game-changer,” Richard Lyall, president of the Residential Construction Council of Ontario, says of the scope for increased use of a material that usually is less expensive than concrete or steel. “It will increase the supply of apartment rentals and condos, which will be good for the market.” --- He also sees wood’s potential in mid-rise commercial buildings, especially infill, that combine multiresidential, retail and professional offices. --- “There is tremendous opportunity, especially in main street and avenue situations,” he predicts.

- “These buildings, once built, are every bit as safe as concrete,” says Michael Giroux, president of the Canadian Wood Council, which has campaigned for the code changes since 2009. His organization is seeking builder interest in projects above 10 storeys. Even with added safety costs, industry analysts estimate a 10- to 15-per-cent price advantage for wood over traditional materials, which benefits price-sensitive and infill projects.

- In a 2013 report for the Building Industry and Land Development Association, former Toronto chief planner Paul Bedford identified “immense potential” to unlock dormant suburban corridors and vacant downtown spaces. -0-- “The tremendous diversity of parcel sizes and shapes allows architects to experiment with different building types and forms to achieve housing choices for all age groups,” he wrote.

- Adding wood as a building option would expand the supply of mid-rise housing developments, especially for families and seniors, he says. “This is a tipping point that will allow us to do stuff we were never able to do before.” --- That’s also the hope in Calgary, a hot, high-cost housing market with low rental vacancies. --- “We hope that opening up this new form of construction and lowering costs at different parts of the process will translate into lower-cost housing,” says Rollin Stanley, general manager of Planning, Development and Assessment for Calgary.

- Richard McGrath, director of codes and standards/engineered structures for the Cement Association of Canada, participated in the National Building Code review. “From a technical point of view, I certainly feel we are increasing the fire risk in these structures irrespective of the fact we are heavily sprinklering these buildings,” he says. --- Some firefighter organizations have weighed in, too. “We are very concerned from a health and safety perspective for firefighters and tenants and residents of these buildings,” says Scott Marks, assistant to the general manager for Canadian operations of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

- But Surrey, B.C., fire chief Len Garis, past president of the B.C. Association of Fire Chiefs, describes fire safety concerns as a “red herring.” --- “Once they [wood buildings] are constructed and operating, they are no different than any other building constructed of other material,” he says. His association, initially skeptical, endorsed the B.C. code change after a study of provincial fires between 2008 and 2013 concluded an absence of sprinkler systems and smoke alarms, not the construction material, was a key determinant.

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The Fondaction Building in Quebec City, a six-storey wood-frame commercial building, was completed in 2010. In a market where brick, steel and concrete dominate, this building has won many architectural prizes and features innovative modern timber products. (Louise Leblanc/cecobois)

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MASSIVE LA BUILDING FIRE...


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Towering Ambition: Tallest Wood Office Building

What has changed from 100 years ago, said Minneapolis-based Tony Layne of Perkins + Will, a global architecture firm, are “technological advances allowing architects and engineers to conceive of building larger, taller buildings.”

In 2013, Chicago-based architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill published a report on the feasibility of using timber to construct office towers. The firm, which designed some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers including Sears Tower in Chicago and One World Trade Center in New York, concluded timber with some concrete reinforcement could be used to construct buildings as tall as 42 stories or 395 feet high.

“Timber has the longevity and the durability,” says SOM structural engineer Benton Johnson, lead author of the report. “The question is why we stopped building with timber?”

The answer is that heavy timber made from old-growth trees that could support large buildings disappeared at the turn of the 20th century. Around the same time, advances in steel and concrete production made those products better and less expensive alternatives. While timber dense enough to support high-rise buildings is still unavailable today, lumber companies can re-create the load-bearing capacity of heavy timber by laminating together smaller pieces.

ENLARGE
To design its timber-framed building, Hines Interests tapped Michael Green Architects, the firm behind Canada’s Wood Innovation and Design Centre. EMA PETERS
Still, the use of wood in commercial construction isn’t expected to be common soon. Most American cities have building codes limiting the height of wood structures to no more than six stories, or 85 feet, due to long-standing concerns about wood catching fire more easily and buckling under pressure in an earthquake, flood, fire or other hazardous conditions.

I would like to see a 400 ft wood skyscraper one day.