Brooklyn is home to New York City’s first mass timber condo building
By Novid Parsi, Contributing Editor
In the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope, the newly completed Timber House is New York City’s first mass timber condominium building and its largest mass timber project (by height and square footage).
The Brooklyn Home Company and MESH Architectures co-developed and designed Timber House. The six-story condo building was constructed with glued laminated timber, a type of mass timber, produced primarily from softwood trees in second-growth forests that quickly regenerate. The structurally efficient building practice provides fire resistance without relying on gypsum board, which is produced at a higher energy cost.
The Timber House project was also designed with passive-house principles, a building technique that supports healthy and energy-efficient housing environments. In addition to the use of mass timber, the development’s high-performance elements include solar photovoltaic panels and electric car charging stations. Air-source heat pumps provide the heating and air conditioning. Air sealing was completed with Intello+ smart air barriers and Tescon Vana tape. The passive house-quality windows by Yaro are triple-glazed. And the energy-recovering ventilation by Zehnder allows a constant supply of fresh, filtered air, even when the windows are closed.
Other residential features include LED strips by Kelvix, Artemide sconces, and ceiling light artworks by MESH, which also designed the custom flooring. The entries are secured with smart locks by Latch.
The 14 units include studios and one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, ranging in price from $595,000 to $4 million.
Building Team:
Owner/developer: MESH Architectures, co-developed by The Brooklyn Home Company
Design architect and architect of record: MESH Architectures
MEP engineer: Green Solutions
Structural engineer: Silman
General contractor/construction manager: Rise Development