Wood is everywhere at Toronto’s Limberlost Place. From tall structural columns to ceilings, walls and stairs, nearly every surface in the airy, three-level central atrium is timber, complete with rustic knots and growth rings. It all feels welcoming and surprisingly intimate. “I’ve never seen anyone get so excited about structures in my entire career,” says architect Phil Silverstein, a partner at Moriyama Teshima Architects, the local firm that designed the new classroom hub for George Brown Polytechnic in collaboration with Vancouver’s Acton Ostry. “People walk through the halls of Limberlost touching the wood. They [even] want to hug a column! There’s something innate about it that excites people.” But all that wood isn’t just about feeling – or looking – good. Part of a wave of new mass timber development, Limberlost Place is a testing ground for a technological revolution that could fundamentally transform Canadian housing and infrastructure.