This summer a superstructure for a four-storey housing complex will rise on a former public parking lot in Toronto’s Kensington Market. What is novel about the 78-unit affordable housing project is that, other than a concrete foundation, it will be constructed of cross-laminated timber (CLT), including the elevator core. Design firm Montgomery Sisam Architects chose a CLT superstructure (floors, roof, exterior walls) partly because it can be erected by a single trade in six to eight weeks, rather than the months required for conventional concrete construction, says Daniel Ling, a principal of Montgomery Sisam. The complex, which is being built under the City of Toronto’s Rapid Housing Initiative phase three, also earns sustainability credentials. The embodied carbon intensity targeted for the CLT exceeds the “extra-low emission requirements” under the Toronto Green Standard.