Construction of 12-storey mass-timber student housing underway at BCIT

BCIT is expanding its housing options for the first time in 40 years, with construction underway on a new building that will house 470 students on campus.

The provincial government said in a press release earlier this week that it is providing $108.5 million towards the development, which will come with a total price tag of nearly $120 million.

The 12-storey Tall Timber Student Housing building will include studios, private rooms with shared bathrooms and kitchens, and common areas like study spaces and student lounges.

“The use of mass timber construction will ensure this is a sustainable building as well as a beautiful centrepiece for the Burnaby campus,” the institute said on its website.

The BC government noted that the building has been designed to reflect the cultures of local Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations as well.

The residence, expected to be completed in spring 2025, will more than double the number of available student housing beds on BCIT’s Burnaby campus from 329 to 799.

BCIT has said expanding affordable housing at the Burnaby campus (the largest of its five campuses, and one where many students commute to from across the Lower Mainland) is one of the institutes’ priorities.

The school’s 2018 campus plan suggests that it would need to add 400-500 new student beds on campus by 2023, and set a target of 2,500 beds of various types by 2040—approximately 12% of the expected enrollment by that time. The housing would include full-term housing, short-term housing for students in short courses, and family-oriented housing.

The plan also suggests that if demand and occupancy in the Tall Timber building is high, a new set of 400 or so beds could be built and then the old building could be demolished.

Meanwhile, rental housing for members of the public could also be on the table over the next few decades.

BCIT entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the City of Burnaby last year to “set out a framework for the consideration of future development on portions of the BCIT Campus to permit potential uses that are currently not permitted in the P6 BCIT District”.

Development under that MOU could include purpose-built rental housing for people not part of the BCIT community, as well as a proposed hotel that could host meetings, conferences, and short-term visitors to campus.

The MOU says that while the city isn’t necessarily opposed to approving developments like those, it would have to consider them on a site-specific basis.

The provincial funding is part of BC’s Homes for People action plan. The government has committed to building 12,000 student housing beds on campuses across the province to ease pressures on local rental markets, and says 7,766 of those beds are already built or are underway.