Limberlost Place
Photo by Doublespace Photography
Limberlost Place
Photo by Doublespace Photography
Limberlost Place
When Moriyama Teshima Architects, in collaboration with Acton Ostry Architects, set out to design a 10-storey mass timber academic building for George Brown Polytechnic’s Waterfront Campus in Toronto, the building code stood in the way. At the time of design, timber assembly occupancies were restricted to six storeys. Rather than accept the limitation, the team worked directly with building and fire officials to develop alternative solutions — contributing to regulatory changes that are now reshaping what mass timber can be in Canada.
The result is Limberlost Place, a 17,420-square-metre vertical campus housing the School of Architectural Studies and the Brookfield Sustainability Institute, along with teaching spaces, a fitness centre, a childcare facility and a rooftop event space. Its hybrid structural system — glulam columns paired with CLT infill panels and concrete slab bands — achieves column-free spans of up to nine metres while keeping the timber exposed throughout the primary learning and assembly spaces. The system has since been open-sourced to support wider industry adoption.
Environmental performance was treated as non-negotiable from the outset. The building exceeds Toronto Green Standard Version Tier 4 targets and achieves net-zero carbon operations through a passive-first strategy: Multi-storey solar chimneys and operable windows enable natural ventilation, a high-performance prefabricated envelope reduces heat loss, and on-site photovoltaics offset remaining energy demand. An all-electric mechanical system handles what passive measures cannot.
Beyond its technical achievements, Limberlost Place works beautifully as a building. Multi-storey informal gathering spaces are distributed vertically throughout, drawing students out of classrooms and into chance encounters. Exposed timber keeps the atmosphere warm and materially honest — a living laboratory that makes the logic of sustainable design visible to the people learning inside it every day.
Team: Carol Phillips and Philip Silverstein (Moriyama Teshima Architects); Russel Acton (Acton Ostry Architects); Robert Jackson (Fast + Epp); Mike Godawa and David Krisa (Introba); Brian Fowler (PCL Construction); Michael Cullen (Studio TLA); David Croteau (Nordic Structures), Gary Chen (GHL Consultants)
