An office building 100% made from mass timber has started construction within the Live Oak Bank campus in Wilmington, N.C. The 67,000-sf structure, a joint building venture between the GCs Swinerton and Wilmington-headquartered Monteith Construction, is scheduled for completion in early 2024.
Swinteronās sister company Timberlab will provide the glulam timber and cross-laminated timber (CLT) fabrications. LS3P designed the four-story building, which is surrounded by trees and located in front of an expanded pond. The building is designed to achieve LEED Silver certification.
Building Four, as this structure is called because it will be the fourth building on the campus, is expected to accommodate more than 200 of the bankās existing workforce. Previously, Monteith had completed Live Oak Bankās 30,709-sf FitPark, a fitness and wellness center made from mass timber, steel, concrete and glass, with a 600-space parking garage. LS3Pās Wilmington office designed FitPark.
āLive Oak Bankās commitment to creating a sustainable, attractive, and intentionally designed campus for our employees continues to be evident in the thoughtful construction and design that Swinerton, Monteith, and LS3P are deploying in Building Four,ā said Live Oak Bankās president Huntley Garriott, in a prepared statement.
All in on mass timber construction
Leveraging Timberlabās expertise and resources, Swinerton has completed over 20 mass timber projects to date, with 10 more under construction. These include Phase Two of the Joinery, a seven-story mixed-use development in Charlotte with a 1,700-sf mass timber mezzanine level.
Jared Hoeflich, vice president at Swinertonās Carolinas Division, said that Building Four is the Cape Fear regionās first 100% mass timber project. He explained that mass timberās growing popularity as a building material is attributable to its lightness relative to steel concrete, its renewability, and its suitability to biophilic design.
On its website, the Port City Daily in Wilmington reports that Live Oak Bank invested $25 million for Building Fourās construction to keep up with the bankās growth, which has increased to 925 employees today from 95 at its inception in 2012. The bank received $2 million in state and local incentives to expand its campus, under an economic development program called Project Buckeye.