Exciting developments are taking shape across the global mass timber landscape, with remarkable projects making headlines from Toronto to Oakland, Massachusetts to Colorado. The University of Toronto's academic tower has reached an impressive milestone—ten floors complete with five more to go—showcasing the structural ingenuity of timber construction with its striking bracing elements and advancing façade work.
The affordable housing sector continues embracing mass timber, with OWAL requesting approval for an 11-story development in downtown Oakland that would bring nearly 300 affordable units to the heart of the city. This project builds on OWAL's successful completion of a 19-story mass timber tower nearby, demonstrating how engineered wood can address critical housing needs while enhancing urban sustainability. Meanwhile, Toronto's innovative residential project at Halsap on Royal York blends a reinforced concrete core with mass timber structural elements in a 9-story building that started construction in March 2025.
Perhaps most fascinating are the emerging applications for mass timber. The newly opened Doris Duke Theater at Jacob Pillow represents an architectural phoenix, rising from the ashes of the original venue destroyed by fire in 2020. This 400-seat performance space combines the warmth of timber with cutting-edge technical capabilities. Similarly groundbreaking, recent research reveals engineered wood demonstrates superior microbial resistance compared to plastic—even after getting wet—potentially revolutionising hospital design approaches. Add to this CU Boulder's groundbreaking on a mass timber Chemistry and Applied Mathematics facility designed to be one of the university's most energy-efficient buildings, and it's clear that mass timber continues pushing boundaries across sectors and applications.
Subscribe, share, and join us each week for more inspiring developments from around the world of mass timber construction. Have an academic manuscript? We welcome submissions for review and possible publication in our journal!
Episode Transcript
Ladies and gentlemen, we are live.
This is the moment you all havebeen waiting for.
It's time for the globalsensation, the one, the only,
(00:28):
the undisputed heavyweightpodcast in the world the Mass
Timber Construction Podcast.
And now here's Paul Kramer,your host.
Good morning, good afternoon orgood evening, wherever you are
(00:52):
in the world today, welcome tothe Mass Timber Construction
Podcast.
My name is Paul Kramer, yourhost.
Welcome to another weeklyepisode of all things mass
timber happening all around theworld in many locations where
mass timber is taking hold.
Don't forget to hit subscribe,like, comment, share and repost
anything that we have on oursocial media feed and, you know,
(01:14):
don't forget to subscribe tothe podcast.
Let's have a look at what'smaking news around the world
this week in mass timberconstruction land, and a big
thank you goes out to GregBoothroyd, who has provided us
with images of the academictower at the University of
Toronto, which is starting totake shape.
It is 10 floors down and fivemore to go, and the images are
(01:37):
impressive.
You can see these great bracingstructures for each of the
superstructure elements and thefloor levels, and the facade is
starting to chase up thebuilding.
So if you'd like to go andcheck out the University of
Toronto building.
Please go and have a look atour LinkedIn feed.
And the team from oh Wow haverequested the buy right for
approval for affordable housingproject at 1523 Harrison Street
(02:00):
in Oakland.
The right by approval has beenrequested for an 11-story infill
in the downtown area of Oakland, in Almeida County.
The project would add up nearly300 units of affordable housing
in the heart of the city.
The project by oh Wow hasshared that they have aimed to
(02:21):
start the construction by theend of this year, 2025.
The initial plans were sharedin 2022, the same month as the
developer started constructionon the now complete 19-story
mass timber tower at 15 TedWebster Street.
The two sites are adjacent toeach other and were initially
seen as two phases.
(02:42):
The plan started a 20-storytower with most market rate
housing.
The plans grew twice through2022 and now the latest
iteration is a 28-story tower,500 apartments.
You can check out the detailsby going to the OWAL site or you
can have a look at our LinkedInfeed.
(03:02):
We've got a link to the article.
It's all about projectsunderway, under development,
under planning and the torontodevelopment for the
prefabricated timber structureat halsap on royal york, a
nine-story purpose-builtresidential project has some
images on our linkedin feed.
You can see the way that thestructure is being established.
(03:26):
This started in March 2025 andis at the corner of Royal York
and Drummond Street.
It is the central core, isreinforced concrete, and then
there is mass timber structurearound the outside.
A great image, a great project.
Coming out and heading tomassachusetts now and the doris
(03:48):
duke theater has officiallyopened at jacob pillow in
massachusetts, making this a newchapter in the long-standing
dance center.
The vast venue replaces theoriginal studio destroyed by
fire in 2020 and introduces aflexible, high-tech equipped
space hosting a delivery of bothlive and digitally augmented
(04:11):
performance.
Designed in collaboration withMarvel and theater consultants,
the project combines mass timberconstruction and advanced
technical infrastructure andaccommodates 400 audience
members.
This is an impressive project.
The outside facade is made oftimber and the internal is made
of timber.
Please do go and check out thisimpressive Doris Duke theater
(04:35):
images on our LinkedIn feed, andthere's a link to the article
so you can read more about it.
Mass timber might elevatehospital construction, as a
study shows that engineered woodis more microbial resistant
than plastic.
Exposed wood, they've found,can resist microbial growth
after it briefly gets wet.
During their study, woodsamples tested lower levels of
(04:58):
bacterial abundance than theempty plastic enclosure used as
a control.
Numerous studies would supportthese properties of wood, but
the particular UO-led researchthat would be the university's
name, including scientists fromthe Salk Institute for
Biological Studies and thePortland State University,
(05:21):
wanted to explore what happenswhen wood gets wet and then
dries.
If you want to read some more,please head to our LinkedIn feed
.
And the CU Boulder breaksground on the chemistry and
applied mathematics facility.
The building will featuremodern laboratories, an NMR
machine, a 237 seat auditoriumand space for future quantum
(05:47):
research.
It's also designed to be one ofthe most energy efficient
buildings in CU Boulder'shistory, with sustainability
features including you guessedit mass timber construction.
The facility is a strategicinvestment for the future in our
economic mission, says theprovost, and if you'd like to
have a look at the very, verysimple one sort of render for
(06:09):
this project, you can go to ourLinkedIn feed.
And so that's it, folks.
That's all we've got time forthis week in Mastimba
Construction Land.
Hope that you have a great weekahead.
We'll be back next week withmore.
Do make sure you like, share,comment, subscribe, repost and
please listen in each week sothat we can give you updates
from around the world and what'shappening in mass timber
(06:31):
construction land, and maybe itwill fuel ideas for your
research project or your nextproject.
Please, if you have an academicmanuscript and you want us to
have a look at it for ouracademic journal, we're more
than happy to review manuscripts.
Please send it through and wewill review and if it's worthy,
we will publish it.
Thank you very much for tuningin.
(06:52):
Good morning, good afternoon orgood evening, wherever you are
in the world.
Today.
This is Paul Kramer signing offon the Mass Timber Construction
Podcast.
Thank you.
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