Dive Brief:

• Benton Johnson, an architect in Skidmore, Owings and Merrill's (SOM) office in Chicago, has high-flying ideas for low-carbon construction – 42 stories so far in a design that could use concrete-joined mass timber framing for a residential tower.
• Johnson is driven by environmental considerations, with mass-timber construction embodying much less than carbon released into the atmosphere than is released in making steel or concrete.
• SOM has issued one study so far, "Timber Tower Research Project," and the Softwood Lumber Board. which funded that report, has signed on to take the research further.

Dive Insight:

Johnson is keenly aware that no jurisdiction would approve a 42-story wood building, largely because of fire-safety worries. It's also important to look at how mass timber could be adapted to all geometries and heights, he said, but the architect, who is also an engineer, is undaunted.