At first glance, 80 M St. looks like an ordinary building, at home in the sea of offices that populate Washington’s Navy Yard.
But it stands alone in its use of a timeless material: wood.
The building contains the first office in the nation’s capital made from mass timber. Looking to entice tenants after the pandemic leasing slump, owner Columbia Property Trust added a three-floor wooden overlay on top of the seven-story building.
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The experiment was a success, reflecting the growing popularity of mass timber in high-rise buildings. Proponents say the trend could help the country — and world — address climate change, with buildings acting as a carbon sink, storing the carbon dioxide that trees absorb during their lifetimes.
