Tall & Urban News

New Construction Codes in New York City Allow Taller Mass Timber Construction

New York City's construction codes now allow taller mass timber construction. Image Credit: Oliver Niblett on Unsplash
New York City's construction codes now allow taller mass timber construction. Image Credit: Oliver Niblett on Unsplash
15 October 2021 | New York City, United States

A major update to the New York City Construction Codes just approved the use of mass timber, including cross-laminated timber, as a structural material for buildings up to 25.9 meters (85 feet). This height normally equates to six or seven stories. 

There have been mass timber buildings built in New York before, but these projects required additional permits that were extremely difficult to get approved. This new regulation will readily allow mass timber construction to be a material choice for low- and medium-rise building construction in the city.

This code revision follows an International Building Code (IBC) update that happened early this year. This revision allowed mass timber construction to go as high as 82.2 meters (270 feet), which is around 18 stories. Many locations across the world, including Utah and Idaho in the United States, have already adopted this international code.

This code regulation was part of the the first major New York City code update since 2014. This update included around 7,400 revisions to construction codes in the city. Most of the regulation will not go into effect until the beginning of next year.

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