City’s first mass timber project, in Walker’s Point, chosen best new wood apartment building.
The best new wood apartment building in the country is in Milwaukee.
So says the WoodWorks – Wood Products Council. The non-profit bestowed the Timber Lofts apartment building with its 2021 Multi-Family Wood Design award.
And while most new apartment buildings are made of lumber, the 60-unit building at 331 S. 3rd St. is the first in the city to use mass timber, a man-made lumber product, in its structure.
Developer Ann Pieper Eisenbrown‘s project, completed in 2020, involves a four-story, horizontal mass timber addition to the 138-year-old, five-story Louis Bass Building.
The resulting units, designed by Engberg Anderson Architects and built by Catalyst Construction, have a substantial amount of exposed wood that is billed as an aesthetic benefit.
But it’s not just a visual benefit. Because it mimics many of the properties of old-growth lumber, mass timber is more desirable than conventional wood construction. It only chars (rather than burning through) in a fire, reduces on-site construction time and offers enhanced strength.