Ontario’s first mass timber, net-zero carbon emissions institutional building of its kind, George Brown College’s (GBC) Limberlost Place has set the precedent for mass timber construction as a model for 21st century smart, sustainable, green building innovation. 

The 10-storey, mass timber educational facility is creating a new era for GBC students, the industry and community. Home to the college’s School of Architectural Studies, Limberlost Place represents GBC’s vision of a flexible, forward-thinking and future-proof facility that will act as a living lab for students to learn in and from. In addition to the many innovative student spaces, Limberlost Place features Mary’s Place Child Care Centre. Embodying the importance of early childhood education, Mary’s Place provides care for infants to preschool children while also helping to develop interprofessional relationships with students, staff and faculty. The Brookfield Sustainability Institute will be based at Limberlost Place and is focused on aligning digital transformation and sustainability to benefit communities everywhere.

The building’s award-winning design integrates unique sustainability features including optimized daylighting and natural ventilation systems, two solar chimneys and photovoltaic panels. Targeting LEED® Gold certification and Toronto Green Standard (TGS) Tier 4, the 225,000-square-foot building has significantly impacted the province's mass timber industry. 

A collaborative preconstruction phase is crucial to any project, especially one of this complexity. Working closely with the college, the architects, consultants and trade partners, the team played an active role in design development to help determine the overall constructability of the project. 

With a long lead time, PCL was able to engage trade partners early in the preconstruction process to assist with value engineering, mitigating risks and pricing. Together with the consultants and trade partners, the team tendered the project and began Building Information Modelling (BIM) coordination and preparing the construction schedule well in advance. 

PCL’s experienced hourly workforce completed the mass timber installation as part of the building’s structure. The installation process was split into two separate phases: the slab band preparation and the execution. Working at an offsite facility while onsite construction was occurring simultaneously, PCL’s hourly workforce built shallow and wide wooden panels reinforced with concrete to create 139 composite slab bands in 14 weeks. The offsite process involved attaching screws, rebar and metal plates to the wooden panels, then pouring concrete and allowing it to cure. 

With the slab bands complete, the next step was to ensure safe transportation from the offsite facility to the project site. Careful preplanning was imperative to determine the correct loading and offloading sequence of the material and overnight delivery to ensure minimal traffic patterns and pedestrian safety. 

The team’s schedule was built out in conjunction with the steel contractor’s timeline to ensure that both teams would have access to the crane. The teams alternated between every two floors, where the OFW team installed the mass timber columns for the first two floors before letting the steel contractor use the crane to complete the steel erection for the following two floors.