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Rising on the northern edge of the University of Toronto’s St George campus, the Academic Wood Tower will become Canada’s tallest timber structure with an academic use when it opens. Designed by Patkau Architects and MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects, the 14-storey building at 110 Devonshire Place is taking shape as a hybrid mass timber and steel structure. Upon completion, it will provide new facilities for the Rotman School of Management, the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, and the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education. The project is funded in part by the federal Green Construction through Wood program (GCWood) and is intended as a national model for sustainable mid-rise construction.
UrbanToronto’s last update was in February, 2025. A month later, in March, 2025, a distant view shows the seven-storey structure now rising amid the local skyline. The mass timber frame is partially visible behind a wrap of black and orange construction tarps, rising just north of the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport, to which it connects structurally at the base. A red crane stands at the northeast corner of the site. Also visible are cranes to the south, supporting concurrent U of T expansions at Innis College (red crane, left, behind), the Lawson Centre (yellow crane, left, front), and Woodsworth College (grey, centre).
Captured in April, 2025, this west-facing view showcases a vertical steel beam being hoisted into place for one of the two staircase structures. Building code at the time this building was submitted for approval demanded steel structure, but changes in the code since have caught up with advancements in timber framing and now allow timber structure there too. The frame connections and cross-bracing visible here are designed to transfer lateral loads back to the hybrid timber-steel structure. Glulam (glue-laminated timber) beams and mass timber floor plates are seen above the tarps.
Earlier this month, construction reached its eighth floor, with the east structural steel staircase now rising two levels higher to the left. Also on the left, we see the cantilevered volume of the tower projecting over the Goldring Centre. The concrete podium base is visible below the tarp. The west staircase is hidden from view from this angle. The elevator core for the building, also hidden from view, will be timber-frame structured, unlike the two staircases.
Seen from across Bloor Street West to the north, the tower has now well surpassed the roofline of the Dominion Meteorological Building, home to the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, with eight levels of timber structure in place. Along with glulam columns and laminated floor decking, we see newly installed vertical posts on the north elevation for the start of ninth-storey framing. Diagonal glulam braces are visible at the midspan of the seventh level and the corners of the eighth.
Viewed more recently from Bloor and Bedford below, construction has reached the ninth floor, with more timber columns and beams in place . An array of diagonal glulam braces is visible on the east facade, where alternating patterns distribute load across cantilevered and recessed volumes—three sloping downward to the right on the southern portion, and two angled leftward in the centre and north end.
Once complete, the Academic Wood Tower will stand at 77m, among the tallest buildings at the St George campus.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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UrbanToronto has a research service, UTPro, that provides comprehensive data on development projects in the Greater Golden Horseshoe — from proposal through to completion. We also offer Instant Reports, downloadable snapshots based on location, and a daily subscription newsletter, New Development Insider, that tracks projects from initial application.
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