M Power Series: Michael Green and the wood revolution

Couldn’t make our Michael Green event at Brian Jessel BMW? Here’s what you missed

It was only three years ago that local architect Michael Green had trouble getting face-time with policy makers, he said at Brian Jessel BMW in Vancouver earlier this month. Now, only a few years later, he’s being courted by them to talk about his firm’s speciality: building with wood. And just not any wood—and not just any buildings. Green works with so-called mass timber, dense manufactured panels and columns that are durable enough to be used as the building blocks for tall towers.As he told audience members, this isn’t simply scaling stick-frame houses. “It’s a whole new technology.” And while Green said that environmental reasons are why he advocates building with wood, he’s noticed that people appreciate these structure in a way they don’t with concrete or steel. “I think it’s ingrained in our species to appreciate natural material.”The event, part of Vancouver magazine’s M Power speaker series, treated ticket-holders to Culmina wine, Stanley Park Brewing beers and Truffles appetizers before and after the Q&A.