Chris McQuillan to lead webinar on mass timber hospitals

October 28, 2025

On October 31, KPMB healthcare principal Chris McQuillan will present “Emerging Solutions for Mass Timber in Healthcare”. The webinar, part of the WoodWorks resource program from the Canadian Wood Council, will present findings from a recently completed test design for an acute care hospital built of mass timber. 

“Unlike concrete or steel, mass timber expedites construction, is produced with minimized consumption of fossil fuels, and has been shown to improve patient outcomes. Despite these advantages, mass timber has not been widely adopted by healthcare,” McQuillan wrote about mass timber hospitals last month. 

In collaboration with British Columbia’s Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), the project was launched in 2024 to examine mass timber’s application for hospitals, an opportunity to reduce the sector’s environmental footprint and improve patient outcomes at the same time. The study evaluates mass timber against more conventional structural systems for hospitals, with close consideration of structure, cost, scheduling, lifecycle carbon, code compliance, infection control, and biophilic design.  

Alongside KPMB and the PHSA, the study team also includes Fast + Epp, Smith + Anderson, Resource Planning Group, CHM Fire, Hanscomb, AMB Planning, and EllisDon. 

Webinar attendees will learn about the key factors influencing structural systems for healthcare buildings and the opportunities and limitations of using mass timber. Chris will be joined by co-presenters Juan J. Cruz Martinez, senior director of the PHSA, and Lisa Miller-Way, director of CHM Fire.  

Event details 

Webinar: Emerging Solutions for Mass Timber in Healthcare
Date & Time: Friday, October 31, 12 – 1 PM 

The webinar is free to attend. Register at the Canadian Wood Council.