Already recognized as innovators in mass timber design, Vancouver’s Michael Green Architecture are set to bring another major timber project to reality, with a 500,000 square foot office complex in Newark, New Jersey, joining the firm’s growing portfolio. More than doubling the size of Minnesota’s 220,000 square foot T3 ? another Michael Green design ? which was billed as America’s largest timber frame building upon completion, the project is set to claim a new record for the mass timber design.
While the preliminary scope of the plan was first revealed last month, this week brings details of the project ? now marketed as Riverfront Square ? via the New York Real Estate Journal:
Riverfront Sq. will transform one of the downtown area?s most important sites into a 24/7 community. The 11.8-acre site sits adjacent to the waterfront, near NJ Transit?s Broad Street station and complements the future Riverfront Park designed by the James Corner Field Operations. The mixed-use project is expected to provide up to 2,000 residential units, large and small-scale retail, cultural and public open space, a hotel, two million s/f of office space, and parking spaces downtown. Environmental advantages of timber-built buildings are largely derived from its construction. Trees absorb and hold carbon until they decompose or are burned, while the manufacture of concrete and steel accounts for an estimated 10% of greenhouse-gas emissions.
?To build the nation?s largest ti...