The scene looked like an Erector Set made for Paul Bunyan himself. Cranes lifted and placed large, prefabricated timber components that were designed and crafted off-site to fit like puzzle pieces into their preordained positions in the skeleton of Brock Commons Tallwood House, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Although the build time on the 18-story hybrid building at the University of British Columbia was not quite the 70 minutes you would see with a traditional Erector Set, the project was completed a mere 70 days after the mass-timber components arrived on site — approximately four months faster than a typical project of this size, according to Think Wood, an organization that promotes the use of softwood lumber.

Incredible build times pulled off with smaller-than-usual work crews have mass timber catching the eye of many in the commercial real estate world. In addition, the carbon-emissions advantage provided by both using timber and limiting the use of concrete and stee