1.5 ConEd Learning Hours
10:30 a.m.‐12:00 p.m.
Due to their prohibitively high cost, developers have not yet embraced the construction of tall wood multi‐unit residential buildings. The rising cost of concrete in Vancouver, combined with a cost premium associated with mid‐rise concrete buildings, led to a feasibility study that demonstrates a “short wood building” can be comparable in cost to a concrete equivalent. The 2020 National Building Code and related provincial building codes currently prescribe noncombustible construction or encapsulated mass timber construction for residential buildings up to 12 storeys in height with no distinction for lower‐height buildings, leading to construction inefficiencies and increased costs for wood mid‐rise buildings.
Short Wood 8 is an eight‐storey prototype that consists of cross‐laminated timber (CLT) floor slabs, CLT shear walls, and light‐frame wood walls that provides an innovative cost‐competitive alternative to conventional concrete mid‐rise multi‐unit residential buildings that exceed six storeys in height—and with a significantly lower carbon footprint.
Learning Objectives
1. Learn about architectural design considerations for a prototypical eight‐storey hybrid mass wood and light‐frame wood multi‐unit residential building.
2. Gain a sense of structural design considerations for a prototypical eight‐storey multi‐unit residential building made up of CLT floor slabs, CLT shear walls, and light‐frame wood walls.
3. Understand the proposed changes to current national and provincial codes to better support the construction of mid‐rise mass wood and light‐frame wood multi‐unit residential buildings up to 12 storeys.
4. Learn about constructibility, schedule, and cost considerations for a prototypical eight‐storey hybrid mass wood and light‐frame wood multi‐unit residential building
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Russell Acton, Architect AIBC, AAA, OAA, FRAIC, Principal
Acton Ostry Architects Inc.
Russell Acton is a principal of Acton Ostry Architects. He was the principal architect for the ground‐breaking, 18‐storey, Brock Commons Tallwood House that at the time of completion was the world’s tallest contemporary mass wood building. He is currently Acton Ostry Architects’ principal architect for Limberlost Place, an international competition‐winning project done in collaboration with Moriyama & Teshima Architects, currently under construction on the George Brown College waterfront campus in Toronto.
Russell has a keen interest in the design of economical mass wood structures for multi‐unit residential buildings that are comparable in cost to concrete equivalents.