Winner 2025

Award for
cross-academia-industry innovation, elevating composite mass timber to inspire future building designers. 

Project description

Limberlost Place is Ontario’s first tall timber institutional building. Designed for George Brown College, the 10-storey structure uses an innovative, beamless hybrid system of mass timber and concrete. It showcases structural clarity, integrated M&E design, and high environmental performance. As a pioneering project in the timber movement, it sets a benchmark for educational spaces that teach through structure.

Judge’s comments

A thoughtfully designed and beautifully executed hybrid structure that brings together mass timber and concrete with technical clarity and environmental intent. The engineers developed and rigorously tested a bespoke shear connection system, enabling an elegant and efficient structural solution. As an educational building, it showcases the best of structural engineering while creating an inspiring space for future generations.

Project overview

Structural Designer

  • Fast + Epp Structural Engineers

Client Name

  • George Brown College

Location

  • Ontario, Canada

Architect

  • Moriyama Teshima Architects, Acton Ostry Architects

Principal Contractor

  • PCL Construction

Key Contractors

  • Mechanical and electrical engineering: Introba

    Building envelope: Morrison Hershfield

    Passive design: Transsolar KlimaEngineering

    Mass timber supplier: Nordic Structures

    Structural steel supplier: Walters Group

Year Submitted

  • 2025

Key attributes

  • People, Process, Profession