Composite timber floor testing, Oregon State University. Image © SOM
System Rendering, AISC steel and timber research. Image © SOM
One reason mass timber construction remains absent from high-rise construction in the United States is because the system remains largely untested in performance and strength. An effort led by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and Benton Johnson, an associate director and structural engineer…has been steadily chipping away at the many unknowns of wood as structure through with its Timber Tower Research Project, which began in 2012 and proposed a hybrid timber-concrete composite system for an existing 42-story building. (The ongoing effort received an honorable mention in ARCHITECT’s 2014 R+D Awards).
Today, the firm released two new studies in its tall timber design and construction research.