The Soto, an office building in San Antonio, is the largest mass timber project in Texas. Architect Lake|Flato Architects Architect of Record BOKA Powell Client Hixon Properties General Contractor Byrne Construction Services Structural Engineer Danysh & Associates Structural Engineer – Heavy Timber StructureCraft MEP Integral Group Civil Engineer Pape-Dawson Engineers Lighting Design Scott Oldner Lighting Design Landscape Architect Hocker Design Group A new form of mass timber construction has slowly made its way to the States from Europe over the past decade. Although wood structural systems have been around for millennia, contemporary design and manufacturing technologies have expanded the material’s construction capabilities while reducing the impact on historic tree populations. Young trees, responsibly forested and harvested at a mere 10–15 years of age, are laminated together to produce structural timber members that have supported buildings up to 18 stories high (so far). The wood stores carbon absorbed by the trees during their lifetimes, and this poses a significant environmental advantage over steel and concrete, whose production represents about 12 percent of carbon emissions in the U.S.
The Little Thicket
