Mass Timber Construction Podcast
Mass Timber Construction Podcast
Mass Timber Market Updates - Apr 2025 - Week Fourteen
Sustainable construction reaches new heights as we explore groundbreaking mass timber projects transforming skylines worldwide. The architectural landscape is dramatically shifting toward renewable materials, with Boston University's ambitious 12-story Global Studies building leading the charge as the East Coast's largest mass timber structure. This stunning Diller Scofidio + Renfro creation promises expanded green spaces and innovative climate systems when construction begins in 2026.
Across the border, Canada continues pioneering tall timber construction with two Toronto marvels: the T3 Bayside development stands as North America's tallest mass timber office building at 42 meters, while Limberlost Place at George Brown College welcomes students as Ontario's first tall timber institutional building. Both structures demonstrate how sustainable materials can create beautiful, high-performance spaces in urban settings.
The corporate world embraces this revolution too, with Walmart's headquarters campus in Bentonville now boasting the largest mass timber application in the United States. As Mercer Mass Timber's Nick Milestone explains, these projects deliver impressive environmental benefits—including 20-40% reduced carbon emissions compared to traditional materials—while creating stunning workplaces. Meanwhile, New Zealand has announced an ambitious $4 billion, 75,000-seat stadium in Rotorua that will showcase mass timber's structural possibilities in large-scale venues. These developments across educational, commercial, and recreational sectors signal a fundamental shift in construction priorities toward sustainability without sacrificing beauty or function.
Join our growing community of sustainable building enthusiasts by subscribing to the podcast, sharing our content, and connecting with us on LinkedIn to see the stunning renders of these revolutionary projects. Have you spotted an innovative mass timber project we should cover? Submit information to our research division—we're always looking for the next breakthrough in sustainable construction!
Ladies and gentlemen, we are live. This is the moment you all have been waiting for. It's time for the global sensation, the one, the only, the undisputed heavyweight podcast in the world the Mass Timber Construction Podcast. And now here's Paul Kramer, your host. Good morning, good afternoon or good evening wherever you are in the world today, welcome to the Mass Timber Construction Podcast. My name's Paul Kramer, your host. Welcome to another episode of Mass Timber News from around the world. I hope that you had a great time in Portland.
Speaker 1:It's now time to dig into the middle of 2025, with daylight savings changing here in Australia and in the Northern Hemisphere. I hope that your summer is warm. I hope that our winter is also warm and not so cold. Let's have a look at what's making news around the world this week. In Masatima Construction Land and Boston University, bu Today has an expose of their five years of planning of Pardee's new home for their Global Studies School. The 12-story building on Bay State Road is the largest Masatima building on the East Coast and will include more green spaces near the BU beach. Diller, schofield and Renfro have done an amazing render showing the superstructure of the building made out of mass timber and the facade system with its exterior envelope, its electric radiant heating system and cooling system and its green spaces. If you'd like to have a look at this 118 million canadian dollar project, which is set to start in march 2026, you can head to our linkedin feed and have a look at the renders as you wish. And heinz t3 bayside is a pioneering building in Toronto's new mixed-use community. The bayside, on the shore of Lake Ontario, is 42 meters high and the tallest office development building in North America. Ambitious project sets a new standard for sustainable construction for world-class office spaces, reflecting the integrated live-work-play ethos of the emerging Bayside community. If you want to have a look at the amazing images from this project, please head to our LinkedIn feed.
Speaker 1:And staying in Canada and Limba Lost Place, a new 10-story building on George Brown's campus, waterfront Campus in downtown Toronto achieved occupancy in January this year. It's Ontario's first tall timber institutional building. As furnishings and furniture are now being installed, the facility is scheduled to welcome students for the first fall class in 2026. Formerly known as the arbor, the building has now been renamed as limberlost forest and wildlife reserve near huntsville, following donations to the college of eight million dollars in 2015 and 10 million dollars in 2021 by the reserve's chair, canadian business leader and philanthropist, jack cockwell. The 52.5 meter tall building, 20,903 square meter structure, whose design was unveiled back in 2018 and, yes, we reported it back then, not on the podcast, but certainly on LinkedIn relocates the space of Jawbrown students into the facilities to house the college's School of Computing Technology, particularly the School of Architectural Technology, and Tallwood Research Institute. You can have a look at the impressive images of the completed project if you head to our LinkedIn feed.
Speaker 1:And bridging the divide between Canada and North America Mercer Mass Timber has announced this week it has completed the mass timber production for the buildings in the Walmart Home Office campus in Bentonville. They completed the campus with the largest use of mass timber in the United States. In the company news release, nick Milestone, a good friend of the podcast and personal friend of mine, who is the Senior Vice President of Mercer, said the project showcases how mass timber can be used in commercial construction. Vice president of Mercer said the project showcases how mass timber can be used in commercial construction. They're proud of Walmart's sustainability vision and demonstrate how locally eco-friendly materials can be produced to provide beautiful, creative, high-performance workplaces. Mercer's Conway facility supplied the CLT and the GLT to the project began last spring and it only just happened now. Mass timbers environmental construction benefits include 20 to 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions compared to traditional materials, faster installation with prefabricated components and a strong fire resistance with enhanced safety and style with the appropriate fire engineering. And, of course, beautiful material that is renewable. Congratulations to everyone working on the Walmart project and to Mercer Mass Timber and the Conway plant and all the people that work there and in a string of mass timber produced mainly glue, laminated timber and other sustainable materials, series of stadiums, including several in australia and a couple around the world, rotarua in new zealand has now announced it is going to become the latest entrant into the iconic sporting venue.
Speaker 1:75 000 meter seat national outdoor stadium is going to be built along the shore of lake rotarua. Construction will begin in early 2026. It's expected to take two years. It's a four billion dollar project and it will be using mass timber. The renders are out right now. You can have a look at the amazing stadium and how the project is going to come together in the next couple of years. It is going to feature an amazing acoustic engineered digital connectivity through the venue, with a host of impressive amphitheater style seating and a retractable roof which will be produced using reliable mass timber. If you'd like to look at the renders, please head to our LinkedIn feed.
Speaker 1:And that's it, folks. That's all we've got time for this week in mass timber construction land. We hope that you're having a great week and that we hope that your summer or spring in the northern hemisphere brings you much sunshine and joy, and we hope that us in the southern hemisphere experience a mild winter not too bad and we look forward to catching up with you next week on the podcast. Don't forget to hit like, subscribe, comment, share, repost our content and, if you've got a manuscript, submit it to our research journal division. We'd be glad to review it and we look forward to receiving any information that you give us about projects around the world. Good morning, good afternoon don't forget to hit subscribe and good evening, wherever you are in the world. Today, this is paul kramer signing off on the mass timber construction podcast. So Thank you.