UW Foster School of Business Founders Hall

A Structural “Three-fer!”

When the University of Washington decided to expand the Foster School of Business, it did more than replace MacKenzie Hall, which served faculty and students for 60 years but had become outdated. The university made a bold statement by constructing Founders Hall, the campus’ first hybrid mass-timber building and one of the few structures of its kind in America.

MKA brought an innovative approach to hybrid mass timber construction that included an intelligent blend of glue-laminated and cross-laminated timber, along with strategically placed concrete and steel, using each material where it is most efficient.

MKA resolved area separation code-related challenges around fire, as well as seismic integrity and building acoustics, through a three-in-one solution that framed the building’s central event space walls out of concrete, the floors out of long-span steel beams, and the floor slabs out of a combination of concrete on metal decking and cross-laminated timber.

In addition, mass timber was used for exposed columns outside the event space and for its topping slab to meet acoustic and architectural aesthetics.

When completed in 2022, Founders Hall’s environmentally mindful design and construction, which uses locally sourced timber from Washington state, will result in a building whose embodied carbon is reduced by nearly 60 percent.