Rendering courtesy of Arcadis Architecture
BRITISH COLUMBIA – A total of four projects will receive a combined $2 million from the Mass Timber Demonstration Program as announced at the 2025 International Woodrise Congress in Vancouver recently.
The projects were selected through the fourth intake of B.C.’s Mass Timber Demonstration Program (MTDP), which helps local builders, designers and manufacturers advance their use of mass timber technologies, scale up innovative construction practices and improve production capabilities, with an eye towards exporting B.C. wood and expertise to global markets.
Each project will receive $500,000, delivered through the Province’s Crown corporation Forestry Innovation Investment.
The four projects are:
Nexus, a six-storey mass-timber project in Penticton that includes four storeys of office space, a daycare and retail space. The 1704 Government Street Limited Partnership is a six-storey post-and-beam project features four storeys of offices over one storey of daycare and ground-level retail, and is the first office building in a seven-phase master plan community of 12 buildings and 1,500 homes.
The Fraser Region Aboriginal Friendship Centre Association’s Indigenous affordable housing project in Surrey that will be an eight-storey tall mass-timber hybrid building that will offer 78 below-market rental units
Kootenay Climbing Association’s Cube 2.0, a three-storey climbing gym in Nelson that will replace the existing wood structure and create an Olympic-level climbing facility that uses mass timber to address growing recreational demand, while showcasing sustainable practices in a rural setting.
The Children’s House Society of BC’s Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon’s Willow House, a 12-storey build that will provide 75 units allowing the charity to accommodate twice as many families visiting Children’s Hospital in Vancouver.
The MTDP provides funding to support the design and construction of mass-timber buildings that demonstrate emerging or new mass-timber building systems and construction processes.
“Nexus will be a landmark medical office building at the gateway to the Innovation District in Penticton, co-developed by Stryke Group and Tien Sher,” says Rocky Sethi, managing director, Stryke Group. “Our team will harness regionally harvested and manufactured mass timber for efficient and effective construction. Occupants of the space will benefit from the natural, biophilic benefits of mass timber – proven to deliver greater employee health, satisfaction and retention.”
With the new projects, the program will have 24 demonstration buildings and eight research projects that are all actively growing B.C.’s mass-timber, engineered-wood-products industry.
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