US to have world’s tallest timber skyscraper with 55 floors, 600 feet height

Michael Green Architects (MGA), a Vancouver studio has released plans for what might seem to be the tallest timber skyscraper in the world if it’s completed.

The studio intends to carry out this plan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It’s most likely to be set alongside the Marcus Center in central Milwaukee.

It’s a multi-tower scheme led by developer Neutral who is working on the approval process as of now.

Mass timber skyscraper to include 750 homes, offices, hotels, and retail space.

As per reports, the MGA is planning to develop office space, retail, hotel, residential, and public plazas. It will likely be built on the site of a parking structure. The project will feature up to 55 floors, which are mostly built from engineered mass timber materials.

The skyscraper will likely be around 600 feet tall when it’s completed. The developer is planning to unfold the project under multiple phases, including 750 residential units, and 190,000 square feet of office space.

Apart from this, there will be 190,000 square feet of office space, 40,000 square feet of retail space, 300 hotel rooms, 1,100 structured parking spaces, public walkways and plazas.

The timber skyscrapers will not be built with simple wooden beams. Mass timber, which is also known as engineered wood or manufactured board are factory-made materials that are made from multiple layers of wood glued together.

MGA will actually rely on glulam and cross-laminated timbre, which are specifically designed to handle stress, moisture, and other environmental pressures. Mass timber supplies are also much cheaper, lighter, and much more eco-friendly.  People in the construction business say these are more reliable than the concrete and steel manufacturing industries.

Mass timber skyscraper to exceed height regulations with eco-friendly design

The MGA revealed that the development is likely to cause an investment of more than $700 million, and it will also include multiple mixed-use buildings. Regarding safety purposes, architects can build structures, which are only from mass timber.

There have been regulations in the past where mass timber projects have been limited to only 18 floors. Using mass timber as a raw material is a prudent choice because it’s a sustainable construction material becoming popular in the real estate space.

Mass timber products like cross-laminated timber (CLT) are quite robust and hard when compared to rubber, but have less carbon footprint. This serves as a renewable source of energy. Mass timber is not only environmentally friendly but also calls for faster construction times, owing to its prefabricated nature.

Most folks in the construction space praise mass timber for its aesthetic appeal, where it offers a unique blend of tradition and modernity, and can also help massively with urban development.

However, despite all of this sometimes just the thought of a wooden skyscraper seems to rattle a lot of people. The above points in favor of mass timber actually surpass all boundaries of doubt.

Most of the respite perhaps comes from the fact that mass timbers consist of many layers of wood, which are glued together. This can help form a stronger wooden beam, which has the capacity to perform better in fire than it would in steel.

With the skyscraper being in action, such doubts will perish. As of now, its plans have been submitted to the city officials for execution.