The new headquarters of a clean energy company in Charlottesville, Virginia has claimed the title of largest mass timber structure on the East Coast.

Apex Clean Energy commissioned the eight-story, 187,000-square-foot building with a focus on sustainable materials and building methods in mind. They worked with Hourigan Group developers and architectural firm William McDonough + Partners to eco-consciously build from the ground up.

“The design of the building required an imaginative and creatively challenging process. Our direction was clear: to achieve financial efficiencies that met, or even reduced, our current obligations while setting a new benchmark in terms of sustainability,” explains John Bahouth, Apex Senior Vice President of Administration. “Fortunately, our process led to a partnership with world-renowned architect Bill McDonough, who literally wrote the book on sustainable design.” In fact, McDonough wrote a text 20 years ago outlining the “possibility of developing healthy and creatively interactive relationships between human settlements and the natural world.”

According to their website, WD+P “have been at the forefront of the ‘green’ architecture and Circular Economy movements for more than 30 years, creating pioneering architecture and many recognized flagships of sustainable design” like YouTube’s Silicon Valley headquarters and NASA’s carbon positive Sustainability Base. The compan...