Proposal For World’s Tallest Mass Timber Building Moves Forward In Milwaukee

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Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is home to one of the tallest mass timber buildings in the world — the 25-story Ascent, a mixed use structure completed in 2022. But now, the city of Milwaukee is entertaining a proposal from Michael Green Architecture to build a new structure that will be more than twice as tall — 55 stories, to be exact. The Marcus Performing Arts Center redevelopment project aims to set a new global benchmark for mass timber construction, potentially featuring the tallest mass timber structure in the world, and the tallest building in Wisconsin at up to 55 stories high and containing a total of 1.2 million square feet of wood.

The proposed project represents a significant investment of over $700 million, encompassing multiple mixed-use buildings. The project, planned in several phases, could include up to 750 residential units, 190,000 square feet of office space, 40,000 square feet of retail space, 300 hotel rooms, parking spaces, and a collection of vibrant public plazas and walkways. MGA founder Michael Green is a pioneer of modern timber construction and has played a major role in popularizing modern big mass timber buildings in North America.

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson says, “As Mayor, I have not been shy about my goal to grow our city’s population to one million residents. To do that we need to be aggressive and reach for new heights. This project will help us do just that, literally aiming to set local and global records, but just as importantly, add density and activity to an under-utilized City controlled parcel in downtown Milwaukee. It also represents a forward thinking Milwaukee, open to outside investments and ideas.”

The City of Milwaukee Connec+ing MKE Downtown Plan 2040, approved in 2023, identified redevelopment of the existing parking garage property as a catalytic project, important to the future success of downtown. In the fall of 2023, the City, in partnership with MPAC, issued a request for proposals seeking redevelopment ideas for the property. After a review of the submissions, the proposal from The Neutral Project, LLC was chosen for best meeting the goals and criteria of the RFP.

“The design of this project encapsulates the goals set out in the Connec+ing MKE Downtown Plan 2040 and the RFP issued by the City by bringing a landmark mixed-use building to the site, activating the Water Street corridor, and enhancing pedestrian connections between the east and west sides of the Milwaukee River, including a re-imagined Red Arrow Park and Pere Marquette Park,” said City Development Commissioner Lafayette L. Crump.

Designing A Mass Timber Building For Milwaukee

“Neutral is thrilled to embark on exclusive negotiations with the City of Milwaukee,” said CPO Daniel Glaessl and CEO Nate Helbach of The Neutral Project. “We’ve meticulously assembled a team of international design leaders paired with local specialist consultants. This collaborative approach ensures we deliver an exceptional community-focused urban experience for this pivotal site in Downtown Milwaukee. Our focus on vibrant urban activation aligns seamlessly with achieving internationally recognized sustainability certification Passive House and ILFI core, resulting in a low-carbon building. This project has the potential to position the Marcus Center as a groundbreaking model for sustainable development, not just in the United States, but on a global scale.”

“This project is an opportunity to create a meaningful and valuable new center in Milwaukee that also advances important proven building technologies and designs for the future of humanity and our planet,” said Michael Green. “It sets a benchmark for achieving urban density and affordability while aligning with our common goal of low-carbon solutions to reduce the significant impacts of our changing climate.”

“We are incredibly excited about The Neutral Project’s transformative development of the Marcus Performing Arts Center parking garage,” said Kevin Giglinto, CEO of MPAC. “This project will not only activate this section of Water Street, but will also create a vibrant, dynamic neighborhood that benefits our patrons and the entire City of Milwaukee.”

The City is proposing a one-year exclusive right to negotiation (with possible extensions), subject to Common Council approval, which gives the development team time to secure tenants, secure financing, and finalize the project plans. Interested parties should reach out to the developer for queries around leasing and partnership.

Timber Buildings And Emissions

According to New Atlas, the new tower will be partially covered with greenery and include multiple terrace areas. It’s also part of a larger development that will be built on the site of the existing MPAC garage. The timber tower is part of a larger development that will include residential space, as well as office space and retail space.

There is no word yet as to whether or not the skyscraper will incorporate some concrete for stability, says New Atlas, but it seems likely that it will, especially as part of the foundation and supporting structure. Fortunately, there are now low carbon cement alternatives on the market that can significantly lower the carbon footprint of modern concrete structures. The tallest all-timber building remains the 85.4-meter tall (280 feet) Mjøstårnet in Norway, and anything taller has so far involved at least some concrete reinforcement.

Many people get concerned at the thought of a wooden skyscraper, imagining it will be some sort of tinderbox that will ignite with a misplaced cigarette or kitchen fire. However, modern mass timber — such as glulam and cross-laminated timber — is not like traditional lumber. Instead, it is manufactured in factories and consists of many layers of wood glued together to form a much stronger wooden beam that can even perform better in fire than steel due to the way it chars rather than igniting fully.

In an interview last year with the Washington Post, Michael Green explained, “The built environment — as it is built now — is not sustainable. This is what we have — concrete, steel, masonry and wood. That’s it. And the only path forward to get us to carbon-neutral buildings is timber.” Green is the author of the 2012 manifesto “The Case for Tall Wood Buildings.” In 2016, he designed and completed the 7-story T3 building in Minneapolis using timber salvaged from trees killed by beetles. Green says, “It sounds scary but it’s not.” Just as protecting steel from water prevents rust, protecting wood from water prevents rot. There are 1,000-year-old wooden churches in England and 1,500-year-old wooden temples in Japan, he pointed out.

The most commonly used building materials for the past century are hugely energy intensive and responsible for massive amounts of carbon emissions. The production of steel creates 7 to 9% of global carbon emissions. The cement industry produces another 8%. The energy needed to heat and cool our buildings accounts for almost a quarter of all carbon emissions — a startling large percentage of total global climate pollution. Sharp-eyed readers will have noted the emphasis on Passive House standards by CEO Nate Helbach of The Neutral Project. That means the new building, once completed, will have about half the annual emissions of a similar building constructed or concrete and steel — no small achievement for the world’s tallest mass timber building.

Historical Notes:

1. The word “story” is how Americans refer to the floors of high rise buildings. In the UK, the word used is “storey” As Garrison Keillor used to say on A Prairie Home Companion, “The office was on the 12th floor of the Acme building. It used to have 13 floors, but that’s another story.” Using “storey” ruins the joke.
2. In New England, early mills were built of wood. The machinery was lubricated with vegetable oil, usually pressed from flax seeds. The oil was not applied judiciously, drop by precious drop. It was applied liberally and a lot of it ran down the machinery and soaked into the floor. If a fire started in one of those mills, it spread like wildfire. Many mills were destroyed by fire in a matter of minutes, leaving nothing but the foundation — and the bodies of dead workers who could not outrun the flame — behind.
3. In the early 1800s, Zachariah Allen built a mill in what came to be known as the village of Allendale in North Providence, RI. Anticipating the fires that were common in the industry, he used masonry, brick, and heavy timbers for the structure on the theory that if there was a fire, the walls and the heavy timbers would survive and the factory could be rebuilt. Because of his interest in safety, an insurance company adopted the name Allendale as its corporate signature. Zacariah Allen was one of the pioneers of heavy timber construction and the Allendale mill building is still standing today.

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