Tall & Urban News

A downtown Milwaukee apartment high-rise that would use high-grade timber, not steel, for its frame has won Plan Commission approval.

The 21-story Ascent would feature 205 apartments and a building frame made with high-grade, engineered timber, instead of steel.

It would be one of the tallest such buildings in the world.

New Land Enterprises LLP wants to build Ascent at the northeast corner of North Van Buren Street and East Kilbourn Avenue.

The project would use an unusual but trending construction technique, known as mass timber.

It would mainly feature laminated timber: layers of wood pressed together to create columns, beams and other building frame components.

Most tall buildings use steel and concrete frame construction. Ascent would use concrete for its four-level parking structure, and mass timber for the upper levels with apartments.

The 238-foot (72.6-meter) Ascent would be the tallest mass timber building in the western hemisphere, said Tim Gokhman, a New Land director.

It would eclipse an 18-story mass timber university residence hall that opened in 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

New Land hopes to start construction fall of 2019 and complete the project by spring of 2021. It also needs Common Council approval.

A building frame constructed mainly from laminated timber is lighter, made from renewable materials and provides a lower carbon footprint than a conventional building, said Jason Korb, Ascent’s architect.

A mass timber building can create a more attractive atmosphere, featuring exposed wood interiors and big windows, he said. And the frame’s parts can be assembled off site and quickly erected.

Competitive market

Ascent is seeking investors, and a lender, in a competitive market for luxury apartment high-rises throughout downtown and the east side.

Northwestern Mutual’s 7Seventy7 high-rise opened last summer at 777 N. Van Buren St.

Barrett Lo Visionary Development LLC’s proposed Couture, 909 E. Michigan St., has received a preliminary approval for a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development loan guarantee. Barrett Lo hopes to get final approval soon and begin construction.

Portfolio, which Mandel Group Inc. wants to develop at 1350 N. Prospect Ave., has been scaled back, with its construction starting date postponed indefinitely.

Also, Madison developer Chris Houden hasn’t yet started construction of the Goll House tower, 1550 N. Prospect Ave., despite obtaining Common Council approval in September 2017. Houden has said construction is to begin this spring.

Gokhman says Ascent’s mass timber construction would help it stand out from other apartment high-rises.

He also said there’s a significant under-supply of larger apartments that can accommodate empty-nesters and other renters, and that Milwaukee continues to draw outside investors for downtown projects.

Timber frame construction

Mass timber is a twist on an old construction technique.

Buildings, such as those in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward, used timber frames in the 19th and early 20th century.

But the advances in steel frame construction in the later 19th century allowed for much taller buildings.

With mass timber buildings, wooden layers are laminated together, using nails, dowels or glue. The beams, floors and other parts are engineered to be as strong as steel or concrete.

Their strength allows them to be used in modern mid-rise and high-rise buildings — eclipsing the old limits of conventional wood frames.

Tests have shown them to be resistant to fire — which chars the outside of the wood before eventually dying out, Korb said. He said Milwaukee Fire Department officials had a “very positive” reaction to the proposal.

Mass timber products have been used in Europe for about 25 years and are a proven technology.

They later surfaced in British Columbia after the province passed a law requiring new public buildings to study the feasibility of using wood.

Mass timber buildings have since spread to about a dozen U.S. cities. That list includes Madison, with Promega Corp.’s office and research facility.

New Land last year announced plans to develop a seven-story, 42,000-square-foot (3,901-square-meter) mass timber office building at 834 N. Plankinton Ave.

The firm has secured some tenants for that project and hopes to get enough additional renters to begin construction this spring.

For more on this story, go to Journal Sentinel.