A 10‑storey mass timber tower on Toronto’s waterfront — the first building to use deep‑lake water for both heating and cooling — has been named Global Best Project of the Year by Engineering News‑Record, beating out 90 projects from 24 different countries.
“This global recognition reflects the dedication of our people and partners to tackle complex challenges and deliver innovative, sustainable, and industry‑leading solutions,” according to Chris Gower, president and CEO of PCL Construction. “We’re grateful to ENR for this honour and proud to share it with our client, partners, and workforce, whose collaboration and commitment to excellence bring our purpose of building a better future together to life.”
Limberlost Place, which opened earlier this year as part of George Brown College’s downtown campus, is being hailed as a landmark in mass timber construction. Urban Toronto, which toured the building before its opening in mid-May, described it as Canada’s first institutional mass timber tower — and one that sets a new benchmark for exposed timber architecture.
In total, more than half of the wood used in the project is left visible, with fire‑retardant treatments allowing the structure itself to become a design feature. “This is complemented by wood wall and ceiling finishes, stair guards, and accents,” said Urban Toronto’s Julian Mirabelli. “There is no mistaking that this building is a showcase for the versatility of wood construction.”
The building’s engineering is equally ambitious.
Limberlost Place uses some of the largest mass timber columns and beams ever installed, including three‑storey glulam columns and an intricate system of cross‑laminated timber panels that click into place. Its slab‑band structural system pushes mass timber into new territory for multi‑storey buildings, while a dramatic timber staircase rising from levels three to five anchors the interior.
Yet the most unusual feature lies far below the surface of Lake Ontario, with the building connected to Enwave’s Deep Lake Cooling and Heating System, a closed‑loop network that draws icy water from intake pipes extending more than five kilometres offshore. “There are three intake pipes that go deep into the bottom of Lake Ontario,” explained Carson Gemmill, Enwave’s Vice President of Solutions and Innovation, who said the new system circulates the water through a filtration plant on Toronto Island before distributing it to buildings across the city.
Speaking to CBC News last year, Gemmill said the system captures waste heat from cooling buildings in summer and converts it into hot water for winter. The result is a zero‑carbon energy profile that allows Limberlost Place to operate without fossil fuels. For George Brown College, the building is as much a teaching tool as it is infrastructure. “We want to be at the forefront of technology,” said Michelle McCollum, the college’s Vice President for Facilities and Sustainability. She described the tower as “really setting a bar for the community, and also as a living laboratory for our students to learn within the building.”
The project has already earned significant international acclaim.
In 2022, it won the World Architecture Festival’s WAFX Award for climate resilience, and it has since collected more than 18 architectural honours. Designed by Acton Ostry Architects and Moriyama Teshima Architects, with engineering support from Fast + Epp and Nordic Structures, the building topped out in August and now houses architecture, computer science and sustainability programs, along with the Brookfield Sustainability Institute.
For architect Russell Acton, the project’s completion marked a moment of reflection. “Limberlost Place’s topping‑off celebration was a moment of reflection and honour for the forests from which the timber was harvested,” he said. “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.”
Standing on Toronto’s eastern waterfront, Limberlost Place is designed to meet net‑zero carbon standards, achieve LEED Gold certification and exceed the Toronto Green Standard Tier 4. Its solar chimneys draw fresh air naturally through operable windows, while a steeply sloped roof is optimised for solar panels. The building’s lighter-than-usual timber-concrete composite slabs also reduce the floor-to-floor height, a design innovation unique worldwide.
- For more information, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from May, days before George Brown University formally opened the new building.
