In the Press

Building a Solid Case for Green Timber Towers

A high-rise frame’s embodied carbon is significantly higher per sq ft than a low-rise building’s, due to greater imposed loads. Thanks to Johnson, SOM is on a course to ameliorate that with mass-timber towers, which are greener than concrete, steel or masonry structures. Last May, SOM published the 72-page “Timber Tower Research Project,” initiated by Johnson. The young associate’s pet project is the first to consider timber as a tower’s main structural material. SOM says its concrete-jointed timber system, developed for a 42-story residential high-rise, could reduce a tower’s embodied carbon footprint by 60% to 75% over structural concrete.