Nearly 1,400 Tons of Mass Timber Arrives and is Hoisted to Rooftop of Capitol Riverfront Office Tower as Part of Pioneering Expansion Project
Over 1,380 tons of mass timber sourced from the forests of the Pacific Northwest and Eastern Canada completed their trek to Washington D.C. and were hoisted by crane to the roof of Columbia Property Trust’s 80 M Street. With this milestone, major vertical construction is now underway on the Capitol Riverfront tower’s three-story, 105,000-square-foot expansion, which will be the district’s first commercial office construction project to rely primarily on mass timber and glass.
Engineered from hard wood grown in Spokane, Washington and Chibougamau, Quebec, the giant wood planks, the largest of which measures 32 feet long and weighs more than 6,300 pounds, were delivered to 80 M Street by truck – a fitting mode of transportation given that American Trucking Associations has leased more than half of the vertical expansion space, which will serve as its new headquarters. Its members also navigated the timber’s 2,500-mile journey from the Pacific Northwest.
When completed in 2022, Columbia’s expansion at 80 M Street will create the ideal environment for companies seeking creative, light-filled, sustainability and wellness conscious space in the popular Capitol Riverfront neighborhood. In addition to ATA’s headquarters, the expansion space includes an additional 55,000 square feet available for lease, as well as an expansive new penthouse lounge amenity and adjoining outdoor terrace for the benefit of all tenants in the building.
“We are always seeking ways to create high-performance buildings that cultivate exceptional work environments for our tenants, add value for our investors, and generate positive environmental impacts for the greater community,” said Paul Teti, executive vice president of National Real Estate Operations for Columbia Property Trust. “Our mass timber expansion at 80 M checks all of these boxes, with its singular blend of innovative design, enhanced sustainability and wellness features, and modern efficiencies, and we believe it is the most uniquely attractive workspace available in the D.C. market at this time.”
Columbia is working with architecture and design firm Hickok Cole; general contractor DAVIS Construction; construction firm Katerra; and engineering firm Arup to construct the expansion space, which will consist of two new floors and a habitable penthouse atop the existing eight-story office building.
The expansion space has been designed to enhance productivity, health and wellness for the building’s occupants. The mass timber’s biophilic design will produce 15-foot ceilings and 12-foot windows – a combination that brings double the amount of light penetration possible in standard D.C. office space – and 4,000 square feet of outdoor amenity space will further elevate the occupant experience. To create a seamless exterior aesthetic and a pop of color, the existing eight-story brick façade will be accented with terracotta tiles and painted metal exterior elements.
Sourced by Katerra, 80 M Street will utilize over 2,500 cubic meters of wood consisting of glue laminated timber, or glulam, a highly innovative material that is stronger than steel, and cross-laminated timber, or CLT, large scale wood panels that provide superior acoustic, fire, seismic, and thermal performance. Analyzing environmental impact, the mass timber used for the expansion sequesters approximately 757,000 kg of carbon emissions, which is comparable to the carbon offset by roughly 1,000 acres of forest over a full year of growth, and equivalent to the amount of carbon created by the average car driving 1.9 million miles.
Research conducted by the Hickok Cole and Arup teams, which worked with the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs to achieve the necessary code modifications, demonstrated to Columbia that a mass timber design is a low-carbon alternative to traditional steel, concrete and masonry building and allows for increases in height with minimal impact on the overall structure. Mass timber projects can also be constructed faster and with less on-site labor.
In spite of the pandemic, 80 M Street is advancing to this next step of vertical construction right on schedule. With the building virtually empty as most occupants worked from home last summer, Columbia and DAVIS opted to move up the strengthening and reinforcing of existing steel columns to support the expansion. Following that, the team began reconfiguring elevators for use during and after construction, and installed steel framing to act as a transition layer at the top of the tower. The team also organized material procurement in advance and routed and coordinated mechanical and electrical systems virtually, to stay ahead of any COVID-related processing delays.
About Columbia Property Trust
Columbia Property Trust creates value through owning, operating, and developing storied properties for legendary companies in New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Boston. The Columbia team is deeply experienced in transactions, asset management and repositioning, leasing, development, and property management. It employs these competencies to grow value across its high-quality, well-leased office portfolio of 15 properties that contain more than six million rentable square feet, as well as four properties under development, and also has more than eight million square feet under management for private investors and third parties. Columbia is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “CXP” and has investment-grade ratings from both Moody’s and S&P Global Ratings.
