…Environmentally friendly mass-timber buildings will soon be able to stand even taller in the skyline with changes approved by Vancouver council on Tuesday to the city’s building rules. The amendment to Vancouver’s building bylaw raises the allowable height of mass-timber buildings to 18 storeys, in keeping with changes to B.C.’s building code introduced in April, which increased the height from 12 storeys. “It makes a huge difference,” said Ryan McClanaghan, project architect for The Hive with the Vancouver firm Dialog. Mass-timber construction, which replaces concrete and steel with engineered timber components — cross-laminated panels and glue-laminated beams assembled from stress-rated lumber — has evolved in stages. …The change B.C. made in April, and now enacted by the City of Vancouver, expands the range of buildings that fit under B.C.’s building code, which McClanaghan said might make developers more comfortable proposing them.