Can We Build an 800-Foot Wooden Skyscraper?
What are the structural limits of mass timber? In this interview, Todd Snapp, Principal at Perkins&Will, breaks down the "River Beach Tower" research project—an ambitious 80-story, 800-foot hybrid timber high-rise study designed for the Chicago River.
Discover how a unique professional-academic partnership with Cambridge University and Thornton Tomasetti set out to test mass timber's potential in high-rise construction. Learn about the structural engineering challenges of tall wooden buildings, the reality of hybrid timber-steel-concrete applications, and the rapid acceleration of mass timber projects in modern architecture.