Heavy timber office building comes to Baltimore

The Collective at Canton: Site plan (Moseley Architects)

Washington DC has one, so does Minneapolis, Denver, Portland and a growing number of other places. If everything goes as planned, Baltimore will be next with a 5 story office building made not from concrete or steel but wood, cross laminated timer (CLT) to be technical. The new technique is the result of laminating timber strands until one gets hefty solid beams and columns that combine the best properties of concrete (compression strength) and of steel (tensile strength), an ideal condition especially where good seismic performance is needed. Plus, like heavy timber, CLT beams and columns don’t easily burn while not requiring the logging of substantial trees as traditional heavy timber. However, Currently, the International Building Code (IBC) only permits at most a six-story building using Type IV construction, a limit that may soften according to new code comments earlier this year. A especially permitted exception is a 12 story CLT in Portland, the tallest in the US.

The industrial past with tank farms and the signature curve at the
top of the image

Baltimore’s first engineered lumber building will be part of what Pavlina Ilyeva called "a whole new neighborhood" rising on what used to be an old Exxon tank farm across from what is now known as Canton Crossing.  The new development goes by the name the Collective at Canton and entails 12 acres total, bifurcated by a curved rails to trails greenway that roughly follows what would have been the Red Line alignment. The developer, Sapperstein is looking to bring a mix of retail, residential and office projects to the former industrial land. 

The architect for the timber office building is the Richmond based firm of Moseley Architects which has a large Baltimore presence after merging with  Marks Thomas Architects. Moeseley's design tries to make the

The proposed 5 story office building in its revised version (Moseley)

unusual construction method not only an interior feature of their exterior design but let it come through on the outside. To this end one corner has open decks with exposing the floor above on each level and timber supported protrusions on the facade which the Urban Design Advisory Panel (UDAAP) reviewed Thursday for the second time. 

For the longest time, Clinton Street was the eastern edge of what had already been dubbed the "gold coast" after the Anchorage, American Can Company, Tindeco and Canton Crossing had opened up the formerly industrial waterfront. Too unlikely the chance that the polluted old tank farms should ever join the golden parcels to the west. Ed Hale, who bought land east of Clinton for his trucking business might have

Sapperstein's Wheelhouse in Federal Hill (Philipsen)

had other thoughts. He certainly jumped the old barrier when he built the First Mariner tower, essentially one of his branch buildings on steroids.  Today, the odd tower is surrounded by new development which year after year becomes more urban and better architecturally, a trend heavily pushed by UDAAP member Pavlina Ilieva who demanded that the new Collective complex become far more walkable and pedestrian friendly than the Canton Crossing shopping center also developed by Mark Sapperstein. He understands the new market. His Walker development is just about to open the WHeelhouse in federal Hill, a building without any parking. Residents attracted to the co-housing offerings (up to three bedrooms per unit with bath around a kitchen and living room) will get a free bicycle instead. 


Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

Heavy timber in Portland's Clay Creative  building (Columbres photography)