Wood Innovation and Design Centre – Lateral Load Resisting System

This paper describes the structural system for the 29.5 metre high Wood Innovation and Design Centre in PrinceGeorge, British Columbia, with a particular focus on the CLT lateral load resisting system. The Wood Innovationand Design Centre is a provincially funded, 4,800 m2, 6 + 2 storey academic and office project funded by theProvince of British Columbia as a demonstration project to promote the use of mass timber in commercialapplications. The project was granted a greater site specific maximum height allowance but was howeverrequired to undergo a stringent peer reviewed alternate solution permitting process.The lateral load resistance for the building is provided by the CLT stair and elevator core, built of balloonframed panels as large as 10.5 metres long by 3 metres wide, as well as the CLT floor diaphragms. The coreconnections consist of self-tapping screws, off-the-shelf steel bracket connectors, custom plate and timberrivets as well as the HSK connection system for the wall hold downs and base shear connections.