Sustainability
News 03.13.2024
Concrete + Carbon Reduction: Challenges, Innovations, and a Sustainable Future
NAIOP WA blog post explores the role concrete and cement can play in reducing embodied carbon in our buildings.
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GLY
GLY has a long-standing involvement with Forterra so when the opportunity surfaced earlier this year to join them for their Building for a Sustainable Future 2020 event, we jumped on it! The day-long get-together of industry leaders explored the opportunities and issues in creating a sustainable cross laminated timber [CLT] and other mass timber market in Washington State. Check out Forterra’s excellent event recap here: 2020 Recap.
CLT lessons learned
GLY is working with Rowley Properties, CPL, and VIA Architecture on 2005 Poplar Way, a four-story office building in Issaquah, Washington. With the support of a sustainability-minded client, we had the opportunity to explore what it would take to convert a steel building into a mass timber building.
Could it work on the site? Did it make sense for the project? Could we do it cost-effectively? Rowley Properties saw immense value in incorporating mass timber into the project in some way even if a 100% CLT building wasn’t in the cards. The result is a beautiful, mass timber cantilevered roof that you can’t miss as you drive into Issaquah on I-90. We shared our early lessons learned in working with CLT in one of the Building for Sustainable Future 2020 panel discussions that you can watch here: Early Lessons Developing with CLT in Washington.
2005 Poplar Way rendering showing cross laminated timber roof. Courtesy of VIA Architecture and Rowley Properties.
Aerial view of 2005 Poplar Way.
The promise of mass timber
As a firm proudly rooted in the Pacific Northwest, we are committed to finding ways to support our clients and the design community accelerate the adoption of mass timber and CLT in our region. The promise of mass timber is that we can reinvigorate our rural time communities, create well-paying jobs, establish healthier, more sustainable and well-managed forests, and ultimately see our region lead the way in healthier, sustainable building standards that share their aesthetic beauty with our natural environment.
Feature photo by Forterra. View event photo gallery.
