Wood Is Good to Act on Climate

All renderings courtesy of Hickock Cole

Hickok Cole, a forward-focused design practice with offices in Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Va. is currently working with Columbia Property Trust on a vertical addition and extension to an existing seven-story building at 80 M Street SE in D.C. The project will add two full floors of trophy class office space constructed from mass timber, including an occupied penthouse level with roof top terrace and social space. When wood is used as building materials, the CO2 trapped during the growth of the tree remains stored throughout the period of use of the wood product, which may be several hundred years. Of equal importance for our climate, manufacturing these wooden materials uses dramatically less energy than other building materials like steel — further reducing the greenhouse gas footprint of wooden buildings. Upon completion, this project will become the first commercial office building in the District to use mass timber construction.