The plastic wrap is gone, the final cleaning is done, and the monitors are plugged in: now everything is ready for the much-anticipated occupancy of George Brown College’s Limberlost Place. The 10-storey mass timber tower—the first to be heated and cooled using a unique cooling system at the bottom of Lake Ontario—is a collection of firsts for the college, the city, and the country.
Standing proudly on the waterfront, the building has a sustainable design and boasts net-zero carbon emissions, a LEED Gold certification, and compliance with the Toronto Green Standard Tier 4. And according to Urban Tornoto—who toured the building yesterday—it sets a precedent as Canada’s first institutional mass timber tower.
And most striking of all, more than 50% of the wood used in the project is fully exposed, with timber treated with fire-retardant products: “This is complemented by wood wall and ceiling finishes, stair guards, and accents,” according to Julian Mirabelli of Urban Toronto. “There is no mistaking that this building is a showcase for the versatility of wood construction.”
And then there is the closed-loop cooling system: “There are three intake pipes that go deep into the bottom of Lake Ontario, about five and a half kilometres out to the lake,” said Carson Gemmill, Vice President of Solutions and Innovation at Enwave. The pipes return to a water filtration system on Toronto Island.
Speaking to Canada’s national broadcaster, CBC News, last year, Gemmill said that the low-carbon heating system takes excess waste heat used to cool buildings in the summer and converts it, using electricity, into hot water for the winter time.
According to Michelle McCollum, Vice President for Facilities and Sustainability at George Brown Campus, the developer and occupier of Limberlost Place, the 10-storey mass timber building: “We want to be at the forefront of technology,” Ms McCollom said, with the timber building “really setting a bar for the community, and also as a living laboratory for our students to learn within the building.”
Built by PCL Construction – which earlier this year published a report identifying mass timber’s “sweet spot” – Limberlost Place “topped out” in August and will house the college’s architectural students, computer students, and the Brookfield Sustainability Institute.
Designed by Acton Ostry Architects and Moriyama Teshima Architects, with support from Fast + Epp and Nordic Structures, the project uses an intricate installation method: clicking and setting the cross-laminated panels and glulam beams into place. It also includes 3 x three-storey mass timber columns, which are some of the largest across North America.
“Limberlost Place’s topping-off celebration was a moment of reflection and honour for the forests from which the timber was harvested,” according to Russell Acton, the Founding Principal of Acton Ostry Architects, who spoke ahead of the project top out last year. “Future generations of students, staff, children and community members – surrounded by the massive, exposed black spruce glulam columns and beams – will learn, collaborate and work in one of Toronto’s most iconic and sustainable buildings.”
Fast Facts about the Project
- Limberlost Place’s structure comprises made-in-Canada mass-timber components and a structural steel core.
- Limberlost Place is a net-zero carbon emissions building, a ‘healthy’ building designed to maximise access to natural light and fresh air. It includes a passive ventilation system powered by solar chimneys, rooftop photovoltaics, and a deep-water cooling system.
- Limberlost Place is years ahead of Toronto’s 2030 goals for sustainable design (Toronto Green Standard). It contributes to significant revisions of the national and provincial building codes to allow for mass-timber buildings over six storeys.
- Limberlost Place’s interior will be lighter and less dense than other mass-timber buildings. The size of the timber concrete composite slab panels being used is unique worldwide and enables the lowering of the floor-to-floor height.
Please Note: Gerald Epp – the founder of Fast + Epp – will be one of the keynote presenters at the World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE 2025) next month in Brisbane. For more information, visit WCTE2025’s official website.
