Canada’s Acton Ostry Architects, in collaboration with tall wood advisor Architekten Hermann Kaufmann, has begun construction on the appropriately named “Tall Wood Building,” an 18-story, 174-foot-tall residential tower for Canada’s University of British Columbia (UBC) upper year and graduate students. The tower will be the largest wooden residential tower, but maybe not for long: MGA’s 35-story Baobab is still awaiting approval.

Tall Wood Building will house approximately 400 students and include 33, four-bed units and 272 studio apartments. The ground floor of the tower will feature both study and social areas, and the communal student lounge will be located on the top floor. The cost for students to live in this building will be the same and/or similar to other on-campus living options.

Located on Walter Gage Road north of the North Parkade, the $51.5-million, mass timber superstructure will sit upon a solid concrete base. From the outside, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the tower has a wood structure. The building’s facade will be comprised of both white and charcoal-colored prefabricated metal panels.

“This beautiful, new tall wood building will serve as a living laboratory for the UBC community,” UBC interim president Martha Piper said in a statement. “It will advance the university’s reputation as a hub of sustainable and innovative design, and provide our students with much-needed on-campus housing.”

Tall Wood Building will join the family of UBC wood structure campus buildings, including the AMS Student Nest and Engineering Student Centre, the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability, the Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility, and the Earth Sciences Building.

In addition to being a student residence, the building will also act as an academic site for both UBC students and researchers.

UBC is currently working toward achieving a minimum of LEED Gold for Tall Wood Building, and the building is scheduled to be complete by 2017.