Category Archives: Wood, Paper & Green Building

As well as addressing an urgent need for province-wide job creation, B.C.’s COVID recovery response should fix some of the most acute vulnerabilities exposed by the pandemic, notably: seniors health, housing affordability, and social isolation. …A provincial government can play a powerful role. …One, the B.C. government could build the capacity of non-profit housing providers to facilitate home sharing and secondary suite management. Two, it could diversify residential energy conservation programs to include upgrades that increase home occupancy, stimulating jobs across B.C. Three, it could incentivize pre-fabricated, wood building manufacturers to construct attractive, affordable, net zero, modular laneway homes for sale at discounted rates in return for long-term, affordable rental housing agreements. Forest-based communities have been hit by a triple whammy: COVID, the softwood lumber war and declining fibre. Pre-fabricated wood building manufacturing is a value-added sector with growing domestic and international opportunities.

A two-storey warehouse building near BC Place Stadium could be revitalized with a modest mass timber vertical expansion. Reliance Properties has submitted a development application to turn 837 Beatty Street — a 1911-built structure just across from Terry Fox Plaza — into a mix of retail and office uses. The proposal, designed by the Office of Mcfarlane Biggar Architects & Designers, envisions a three-storey addition using mass timber beams and columns, and laminated timber floors. The existing heavy timber and masonry will be preserved, wherever possible, and the new heavy timber construction will “reflect and reinterpret” the existing structure’s language.

A distinctive large warehouse made of cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glulam that is taking shape in Langford, B.C., is the latest in a series of wood buildings going up on Vancouver Island since a number of local councils there committed to adopting mass timber technology for taller wood buildings. The build holds the distinction of being one of Canada’s first mass timber warehouses using CLT… Tom Moore, founding partner at Studio 531 Architects, was lead designer of the building. The structure is concrete, slab on grade, but the rest of the building is timber. …The 10,000-square-foot build is being erected as a turnkey warehouse and showroom for EMCO, one of Canada’s largest plumbing supply companies. …Panels for the building were supplied by Katerra. …While Moore has been involved in designing numerous airports, hotels, housing, offices, recreation and fitness centres, the warehouse project has attracted the most publicity.

The beauty of British Columbia is magnetic. Tourist attractions and visitor centres throughout the province have drawn inspiration from the natural environment, with abundant use of wood from sustainably managed forests for both structure and storytelling. Projects like the Vancouver’s VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre, the Vancouver Aquarium, The Squamish Adventure Centre and the Cheakamus Centre and others are featured in the book, Naturally Wood, which showcases B.C.’s cutting‐edge wood architecture and design. The beautifully illustrated, 160-page publication contains more than 65 innovative wood buildings and projects, including how wood is being used in tourism and attractions. Four continuing education units have been developed based on the book. They are recognized by the Architectural Institute of British Columbia and are available at naturallywood.com/naturally-wood-ceus. Download the Naturally Wood e-book at naturallywood.com/nwbc.

Due to the ongoing pandemic restrictions, we have decided to take our co-op night online. Please join us for our very first UBC Wood Products Processing (WPP) Virtual Co-op Presentation Night on Thursday, September 24^th, 2020. Intermediate and senior students in the B.Sc. Wood Products Processing degree program at the University of British Columbia will be delivering presentations on their most recent co-op work terms. This is a fantastic opportunity to see what our students are able to accomplish in the work place. When: Thursday, September 24^th, 2020, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Where: Anywhere! Those who RSVP will receive a link to the event closer to the event date. RSVP: Please RSVP here by September 22^nd, 11:55pm. Please note that the program for the evening, as well as the presenter list, will be distributed in September. We are also accepting co-op job postings for the Winter 2021 term (January 2021 job start).

A new building under construction on Queens Way will, according to its owner, become a hub of world-class design. The roughly 27,000-square-foot structure on Queens Way will house Squamish woodworking and furniture company Leon Lebeniste on its main floor with a publicly accessible space, complete with a café, on the second floor …The building will not only provide visitors with gorgeous views of the Tantalus Range from an upper-level deck but will itself be a thing of beauty. The building’s exterior will consist of cross-laminated wood, which is described by the Engineered Wood Association as “a large-scale, prefabricated, solid engineered wood panel.” In addition to being attractive, Hewitt said there is also an environmental impetus for choosing wood. He said the carbon footprint of building a wood structure is less impactful than building with primarily with steel,” he said. Timber is grown and process in British Columbia., he added.

VANCOUVER, BC – The Centre for Advance Wood Processing at the University of British Columbia will offer three Wood Manufacturing Council (WMC) On-line Management Skills Training courses beginning Sept. 14. These non-academic courses are geared toward teaching wood product professionals how to understand and/or implement various management systems including production planning, quality control and finance. The stated goal of each course “is to teach skills that can be immediately applied to the workplace.” …The three courses being offered this fall are part of a series of nine short online training courses developed by the WMC specifically for the wood products industry. They include: Production Planning; Quality Management and Control [and] Business Finance.

Anyone who hasn’t ventured into the heart of Esquimalt recently will notice big changes to the landscape – especially in the centre of the township, where the Esquimalt Town Square project is transforming the former public works site behind city hall. …Mayor Barb Desjardins finds it difficult to contain her enthusiasm about the development and the future of this site. “This is an exciting project for the whole community and we’re all watching every day as it grows, and takes shape and becomes more and more alive.” In the afternoon shadow of the six-storey residential condominium towers, a wood-frame, mass timber office building featuring 10-foot, ground-floor ceilings is fast taking shape. One can imagine the possibility of enjoying a meal and a beverage in a neighbourhood pub here, or relaxing on the public square with a coffee and baked goods from Esquimalt Roastery.

Tyler Slowski

Neither an injury nor the pandemic has slowed Tyler Slowski’s business, Prairie Barn Brothers, based in the Yorkton area. Originally started in January 2018 by Tyler and his brother Nathan, the company sees western Canada’s rustic, abandoned barns as still holding value; a value that’s better realized when the barns aren’t dotting the landscape while getting battered by wind and rain. Slowski and his crew deconstruct the barns, refurbish any salvageable wood, then sell it to buyers. Demand, he says, has been constant since the company’s early days, and especially halfway through 2020, pandemic be damned. “The months of March and April were our busiest months of the year,” he says. “Last year I was offered 100 barns; I had to turn down 90 per cent of them because I just don’t have the capacity.”