Limberlost Place Receives ACECBC 2024 Award for Excellence

August 6, 2024

Earlier this year, Limberlost Place – designed for George Brown College to be a landmark place of learning and the first building of its kind in Ontario – received the ACECBC 2024 Award for Excellence from the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies BC.

The 10-storey, 52.5m tall, exposed mass timber building will house the Tall Wood Research Institute, the School of Architectural Studies, the School of Computer Technology, as well as childcare and social spaces.

This tall timber project took a holistic design approach with mass timber chosen as the primary structural material. Thoughtful design maximizes access to natural light and fresh air with a 40% window-to-wall ratio.

The floors are supported on massive glulam columns from the ground floor through to the upper roof, and measuring in at 1,725mm×630 mm and three stories tall, these are the largest glulam columns in North America. A large span beamless structural system comprised of timber-concrete-composite (CLT) slab bands with perpendicular CLT infill panels, are all supported on the glulam columns.

At the ground floor, 300 mm thick reinforced concrete slab are supported by the concrete columns and walls below. Seven-ply timber composite concrete (TCC) slab bands act compositely with the 150 mm concrete topping. From level 2 to 8, the slab bands serve as primary floor structure. A steel braced frame system enhances the structure’s overall strength and ductility.

Extensive testing was done on band behavior, with a focus on creating an affordable shear flow connector. The resulting open-source findings offer valuable design insights for TCC systems, benefiting the wider design community and putting the project years ahead of Toronto’s 2030 goals for sustainable design.

Fast + Epp is immensely proud of the thoughtful design and the entire team behind this project, as we collectively continue to move the needle of sustainability and innovation for tall timber buildings.

Photo courtesy of ACEC BC