Construction begins this month on a wood building residence at the University of British Columbia (UBC), which is set to be one of the tallest wood buildings in the world.
The residence, called Tall Wood Building, is set to open by September 2017 and will cost an estimated $51.5 million and house 404 students.
The building will consist of a mass timber interior frame atop a concrete base.
“The use of wood as a building material for tall buildings is quite new,” said John Metras, managing director of infrastructure development at UBC. “There are other projects around the world that are working on similar applications of ash timber, and in a few cases for similar heights, but this is the first 18-storey tower.”
On sustainability, Metras said wood stores carbon dioxide and requires a lot less embodied energy than concrete or steel.
Metras said it took a year to design the wood building and two more years of planning. He said the wood materials mostly consist of glue-laminated timber columns strong enough to carry the weight of the building, and cross-laminated timber floor panels.
The British Columbia Building Safety and Standards Branch has reviewed the design, and brought in a panel of experts and fire department officials to examine it, Metras said.
For fire prevention, Metras said the building is designed such that the wood structural elements are put in behind three layers of drywall. The building will also have automatic sprinklers that also work when the power is off. Metras added the building will have a concrete elevator and stairway core to protect against earthquakes.
Andrew Parr, UBC’s managing director of housing, said the building won’t change much for students living in the building, but will add additional space for students in need of campus housing.
“I don’t expect the tall wood aspect of this building to create anything unique in terms of residence life and/or community development,” Parr said. “But adding another 404 beds [to] campus will be well received, will grow the on-campus population which, in turn, enhances the vibrancy of campus in general.”
The demand for student housing at UBC far exceeds supply. Vancouver also has among the highest housing costs in the country.
Parr said the residence will relieve but not eliminate the supply gap. Parr said UBC is estimated to add 2,755 spots for students by 2019.
The residence is estimated to cost eight per cent more than a building of comparable size built with concrete and steel, but UBC isn’t paying for the construction and design costs.
“The cost premium for constructing wood is being entirely funded by external agencies,” Metras said. “UBC doesn’t bear any additional cost over what we would pay for a typical residence facility.”
Metras said the eight per cent premium is in part due to the design analysis, design review, and construction methods necessary to build one of the first tall wood structural buildings.
Rent won’t change for residence users despite the extra cost to construct the building, Parr said.
