Vancouver architecture firm proposes timber skyscraper for Paris skyline

[Sheba]

Vancouver architect Michael Green, who co-wrote the book on building skyscrapers out of wood timbers, has a role in an audacious proposal to construct the world’s tallest to stand as a beacon on the Paris skyline.

At 35 stories, the wooden tower Green’s team is proposing would have to be approved as an exception to Paris’s existing height limits for wood structures, but he hopes winning the bid could be the “Eiffel-Tower moment” for the acceptance of tall timber buildings he has been advocating for close to a decade.

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Proposals for taller wood structures are being advanced in North America, including an 18-storey student residence building at the University of B.C., and in Sweden and Austria.

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His firm is working on the 18-storey student residence at UBC and has made proposals to build similarly tall “hybrid” structures in Vancouver, buildings combining a lot of wood with concrete and steel. However, Fast said using wood is a matter of “finding the right building type, the right application.”

http://www.vancouversun.com/Vancouve...741/story.html