Leading mass timber adoption in North America, the design firm’s growing portfolio drives environmental stewardship and economic value while enhancing quality of life in places to work, travel, study, and reside

With record-breaking greenhouse gas levels and global temperatures rising, the global integrated design firm DLR Group today announced it has reached a new milestone in decarbonizing the built environment and elevating the human experience through design: over two million square feet of completed mass timber projects, and another two million in design or construction across North America. Since introducing the first 200,000+ square-foot, mass timber office building in the United States in partnership with the developer, Hines, DLR Group continues to pioneer mass timber, bringing its environmental, economic, and experiential benefits to dozens of cities and across a range of building types.

Mass Timber’s Climate Impact

The built environment accounts for 42% of annual global CO2 emissions – with 15% attributed to embodied carbon from materials and construction. Because wood products store atmospheric carbon dioxide captured by trees through photosynthesis and lock it into a building’s structure, mass timber buildings have significantly lower embodied carbon emissions compared to traditional construction materials like concrete and steel.

“We believe in designing buildings that create healthier, more sustainable futures. Our mass timber work reflects DLR Group’s unwavering commitment to reduce climate impact through carbon reduction,” said DLR Group Managing Principal and Chief Design Officer Peter Rutti, AIA, NCARB.

Where Business Benefits and People Prosper

In addition to environmental advantages, such as carbon sequestration, embodied carbon reduction, and sustainable material sourcing from responsibly managed forests, mass timber in design and construction offers more efficient construction timelines, with offsite prefabrication of panels, beams, and columns leading to quieter, cleaner, and quicker on-site construction. Reduced construction timelines enable owners to enter market sooner, with enhanced revenue potential.

From a health and wellness perspective, research indicates that the use of exposed wood in interior spaces can enhance occupant wellness by improving mood states, promoting relaxation, and reducing stress levels. As a hygroscopic material with low VOC emissions and natural insulation properties, mass timber can also help moderate humidity levels and create a more stable, comfortable environment with improved indoor air quality.

“Our mass timber portfolio spans educational and student housing facilities, corporate offices, hotels, and mixed-use developments, decreasing carbon emissions and improving the health and wellbeing of users across the United States,” said Principal and Design Leader Steve Cavanaugh, FAIA, LEED AP, who leads DLR Group’s mass timber studio and has designed three million square feet of mass timber while stewarding the firm’s ongoing partnership with Hines. To date, his seven built mass timber projects have reduced the amount of carbon entering the earth’s atmosphere by 27,635 metric tons, the equivalent of taking more than 7,000 cars off the road for a year.

Workplace, Reimagined in Timber

DLR Group’s ongoing decade-long partnership with Hines introduced a T3 (Timber, Transit, Technology) series of mass timber office buildings across North America. Focused on sustainability and occupant wellbeing, the T3 projects respond to modern demands for transit-oriented workplaces that are better for the environment and the people who work within them. Showcasing DLR Group architectural and interior design, T3 ATX Eastside in Austin, Texas became the first timber office and residential development in the United States, with 92,000 square feet of Class-A timber office space and 15 residential units totaling 12,000 square feet. Its interiors deliver wellness benefits through biophilic design, layering exposed timber, natural textures, and carefully considered lighting to bring the outdoors in. These design strategies have been linked to enhancing mental and emotional health, in addition to delivering sustainable benefits. The sustainably sourced wood gives T3 ATX Eastside a lighter carbon footprint and embodied carbon advantages over traditional steel or concrete construction, while helping to reduce stress and promote creativity and focus with its distinctive warmth and aesthetic as a natural material. DLR Group’s first large-scale mass timber office building in Florida, the 182,000-square-foot T3 FAT Village, topped out in late October 2025. The project incorporates a purlin system that adds textural depth to the exposed timber deck while reducing wood fiber use per square foot by 20%, improving material efficiency. This approach is projected to sequester more than four metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Having demonstrated the value of mass timber in workplace through its T3 timber office designs, DLR Group sought to address barriers to more widespread adoption of mass timber in hospitality. With a Wood Innovations Grant from the U.S. Forest Service, the firm and the University of Minnesota developed a Mass Timber Hospitality Prototype which provides hospitality partners practical data demonstrating that mass timber can meet the sector’s stringent safety and acoustic standards.

Mass Timber Hotel Design

Common Pine, California’s first mass timber hotel, is bringing the Mass Timber Hospitality Prototype to fruition. Located in Truckee, California, the hotel draws design inspiration from the area’s forested surroundings and reinforces guests’ connection to the natural environment with an exposed timber structure. With 902 new hotels estimated to open in the United States in 2027, Lodging Econometrics estimates that if these hotels were to use mass timber instead of traditional concrete and steel, it could prevent the emission of an estimated 1.3 million metric tons of carbon, while still maintaining hotel safety and sound standards. When complete in 2028, Common Pine will introduce a new kind of mindful hospitality that embeds sustainability into all aspects of the guest experience, beginning with building material.

Learning and Living, Elevated by Timber

Whether incorporated into a next-gen Career and Technical Education (CTE) facility, student housing development, dining center, or hands-on learning laboratory, mass timber can enhance student experiences while driving forward sustainable construction practices.

Mass timber is the defining element of the new Kalamazoo RESA Career Connect Campus, a career and technical facility where students advocated for a warm, natural, sustainable learning environment and prioritized wood as the primary building material in stakeholder workshops. Serving high school students and staff in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the campus integrates 115,000 square feet of cross-laminated timber within a hybrid steel structure, which reduced the building’s carbon footprint. The use of prefabricated timber components also accelerated the construction process, offsetting the challenge of COVID-19 supply chain disruptions. A catalyst for broader adoption of mass timber across the region, the KRESA Career Connect Campus represents a significant investment in educational infrastructure that will set a national standard with its strong connections to nature and use of mass timber.

Texas A&M University broke ground on the first mass timber building on the College Station, Texas campus, the Aplin Center, in October 2025. The 211,000-square-foot facility is designed to redefine hands-on education in hospitality, retail, and food sciences, and with timber sourced from East Texas, will nurture tomorrow’s workforce while advancing the University’s sustainability goals.

Delivering mass timber student housing to students of The Ohio State University, DLR Group’s 9th and High project in Columbus, Ohio paves the way for the future of low-carbon student housing developments that meet targets for sustainability and occupant well-being. Spanning 242,000 square feet, the 13-story building incorporates a mass timber structure manufactured and sourced in Alabama. Currently the tallest mass timber student housing building in the United States, it demonstrates new possibilities for future large-scale developments: faster construction with prefabricated timber components, in addition to cost-effectiveness and lower carbon impact by leveraging the North American timber supply chain.

Designed to rigorous Living Building Challenge standards, Swarthmore College Dining and Community Commons in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania entailed adaptive reuse of the existing dining hall into a community commons and a new 60,000-square-foot dining center where the choice to use mass timber instead of steel elevated the food service and dining experience for staff, faculty, and students, while saving nearly 300 metric tons of carbon.

“Using mass timber in our projects is not just a pathway to reduce carbon footprints; it’s directly related to helping our clients achieve their goals and creating healthier, more inspiring spaces for the communities they serve,” said Rutti.

As an original signatory of Architecture 2030, DLR Group has consistently championed innovative approaches to sustainable design, including investigating and implementing sustainable alternatives to carbon-intensive materials like concrete and steel. The firm’s extensive mass timber design expands the technical knowledge and market viability of timber and aligns with global efforts to reduce the built environment’s carbon footprint.

About DLR Group

Celebrating 60 years in 2026, DLR Group is an integrated design firm delivering sustainable, human-centered solutions for communities locally and globally. The firm’s architects, engineers, interior designers, and planners collaborate with public and private sector clients to create projects with long-lasting social, economic, and environmental value. Fast Company named DLR Group among the World’s Most Innovative Companies for its industry-leading adaptive reuse strategies: innovative design that serves clients and communities while significantly reducing carbon emissions.

DLR Group’s promise is to elevate the human experience through design. As a 100% employee-owned firm, DLR Group fosters a culture of ownership and accountability that shapes its daily practice and drives its commitment to sustainability initiatives, including the 2030 Challenge, the China Accord, and the AIA 2030 Commitment.

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“We believe in designing buildings that create healthier, more sustainable futures. Our mass timber work reflects DLR Group’s unwavering commitment to reduce climate impact through carbon reduction." - DLR Group Chief Design Officer Peter Rutti, AIA, NCARB