If wood rots, burns and isn’t great at handling earthquakes, why build an 18-storey resident building out of it? Three reasons — its sustainable, an opportunity for research and helps the local economy.
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Brock Commons is being touted as a very environmentally friendly building. While it’s on track to be a LEED Gold Certified building but the wood building goes way beyond just an energy efficient certification.
There is this hype right now that timber is fantastic. But is that just a pendulum swing? According to Perry Adebar, UBC’s civil engineering department head it is. Frank Lam, a wood building expert agrees.
Brock Commons has a fire rating — the amount of time a building is supposed to withstand a fire before its structural integrity is compromised — that is about two hours, which is typical for a high-rise building.
BC was the first province to allow for wooden building construction up to 6 storeys high, with legislation that has been in effect since 2009. Then B.C.’s Building Act was passed was 2015, which allows for wood buildings taller than six storeys.
The building will consist of a total of 404 studio and four-bedroom shared units, which will be given a fairly even rental price, estimated at $1,100 per student for the four-bedroom unit and at $900 per student for the studio units.
The architecture firm behind the Tall Wood building is one whose name might not be instantly recognizable to most campus residents, but Acton Ostry’s presence is one which is nonetheless influential in shaping the environments of UBC’s future.
In order for Brock Commons to succeed, it not only had to set a new bar for wood buildings, but also develop new methods for construction which streamlined the process and reduced the actual time spent on site.
When most students left for the summer break, all that there was to see of the new Brock Commons Phase One, were two elevator shafts rising up next to Gage – ugly and unremarkable.When most students left for the summer break, all th
“I definitely enjoy working in hospitality, and studying people in sociology. I like interacting with people and making sure people are happy in some capacity whether it’s enjoying food, or helping people in the grander scheme.”
Perrin has established himself as one of Allard Hall’s most industrious professors, publishing several books on criminal law and completing other projects, such as a report card on the Canadian ‘justice deficit.’
“No one around me knew... Getting people to talk about it can really help. That’s why I was so disappointed when I was in a position to talk to a lot of people, but I just couldn’t get myself to bring up my depression."
“Doing a PhD was totally on my radar, but I wasn’t thinking of going to Oxford necessarily until I started looking more into the program. Then the question became, if I didn’t get Rhodes, would I still apply to the PhD program independently?”
I know it may not seem related, but any issue pertaining to black lives cannot be divorced from my understandings of feminism. The women at the centre were so so so supportive of it and we just threw a really kind of last minute event together.
As we tried to sleep we could have sworn we heard a bear sniffing around. Terrified, we hid under our sleeping bags. The next morning, a glowing sunrise over the lake and mountains was not the only thing to greet us as we sat in our sleeping bags.