NYC Mass Timber Studio

The City of New York (the “City”) plays a powerful role in paving the way to decarbonize the built environment and scale the clean construction industry by enabling innovative solutions, facilitating bold policies, and operating pilot programs to overcome implementation challenges in tangible ways.

As part of the City’s decarbonization efforts, New York City Economic Development Corporation ("NYCEDC") is launched the New York City Mass Timber Studio (the “NYC Mass Timber Studio”), a technical assistance program to support active mass timber development projects in the early phases of project planning and design.

The Mass Timber Studio’s first cohort of awardees will explore the following focus areas: navigating regulatory frameworks, innovative project delivery, technical feasibility, sustainability and resiliency, and community & equity. The projects span across all five boroughs and include diverse building typologies and scales – from community centers to multi–family residential and industrial adaptive reuse developments.

1. Walter Gladwin Recreation Center - Tremont, Bronx
Marvel, TYLin | Silman Structural Solutions, NYC Parks & Recreation, and NYC Department of Design & Construction (NYC DDC)

2. Brooklyn Public Library New Lots - East New York, Brooklyn
Brooklyn Public Library, MASS Design Group, Marble Fairbanks Architects, Envoie Projects, and TYLin | Silman Structural Solutions

3. Mass Timber in Harlem - Harlem, Manhattan
atelierjones, Magna & York, Sage and Coombe, Swinerton, Timberlab, and DCI Engineers

4. Hillside Ave - Jamaica, Queens
Curtis + Ginsberg Architects, MURAL Real Estate Partners, Buro Happold, and Rodney G. Gibble Consulting Engineers

5. Hoek Place - Red Hook, Brooklyn
Urban Terrains Lab, BLDGWorks, TYLin | Silman Structural Solutions, Element5, and Veneklasen Associates

6. 1160 Flushing Avenue - Bushwick, Brooklyn
Totem, BEB Capital, dencityworks | architecture, Evergreen Exchange, and A+I

7. The Grafted Home - Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Algoma and Neighbor

Building to Net Zero with Mass Timber

Expanding the use of mass timber, building materials composed of engineered wood products, is a critical component to achieving the City’s carbon reduction targets, including reducing embodied carbon emissions (those locked in place as soon as a building is constructed) for new buildings, infrastructure, and major retrofits by 50 percent (PlaNYC 2023). In fall 2022, Mayor Eric Adams signed Clean Construction Executive Order 23 which requires the City’s capital project agencies to commit to actions that will lower embodied carbon from municipal construction projects.

Goals of the NYC Mass Timber Studio

The NYC Mass Timber Studio will broaden awareness, identify new opportunities, and accelerate the use of mass timber practices in New York City, with the following goals:

• Raise public awareness of the carbon and economic benefits and beauty of mass timber construction
• Connect design teams and City actors interested in advancing use of mass timber
• Introduce more practitioners to the details and feasibility of mass timber construction
• Identify development opportunities resulting in new building and infrastructure projects in New York City constructed with mass timber
• Identify the potential for new business and job creation through the expansion of mass timber construction

Broader awareness of the benefits and practices of mass timber construction will in turn result in more buildings constructed with mass timber materials. New demand can enable harvesters, fabricators, suppliers, and providers to expand their existing businesses, and create new local and regional business and job opportunities.

The NYC Mass Timber Studio will be operated by NYCEDC and the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice in collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) Forest Service and the Softwood Lumber Board, with technical assistance provided by Wood Products Council ("WoodWorks"), and advisory feedback from the NYC Department of Buildings and the American Institute of Architects New York (“AIANY”).