Edward Keegan: Milwaukee is building contemporary timber towers. What about Chicago?

Chicago Tribune

9 hours ago

One of the more memorable displays of old-style Chicago politics and boosterism that I ever witnessed was at a Streeterville community meeting circa 2007 in which outgoing 42nd Ward Ald. Burt Natarus implored his constituents to support Santiago Calatrava's proposed Chicago Spire project. If Chicago didn't have a Calatrava, Natarus argued, we would fall behind Milwaukee — which had the Milwaukee Art Museum designed by the Spanish architect.
In the years since, our neighbor to the north has become a hotbed for the development of timber towers — tall buildings that use relatively new mass timber technologies that can replace the steel and concrete traditionally used to support such structures. Since 2022, Milwaukee has been home to the tallest timber tower in the world — the 25-story Ascent MKE at 284 feet in height. That's no Sears Tower, but when you consider that most wood-framed buildings are one to four stories tall, it's quite an achievement.
The residential tower was designed by the locally based Korb Architecture for a site just a few blocks from the lakefront at the corner of North Van Buren Street and East Kilbourn Avenue. Clad primarily in glass, Ascent is unnecessarily fussy in its articulation with a few too many nips and tucks in its plan. Recessed balconies are awkward accents on the east and west elevations. Its floor-to-ceiling glass is dark and foreboding and clashes with the lightness of the timber columns and ceilings that can be seen from the street. The building is a hybrid, with its timber tower built atop a concrete parking structure. The transition from concrete to wood structure is revealed, but it's done in a distinctly unartful manner — an unfortunate missed opportunity, given the building's remarkable structural narrative.
Ascent is just the beginning for Milwaukee's contemporary wood construction. Ground was recently broken on the 361-foot-tall Neutral Edison along the east bank of the Milwaukee River in downtown. When completed in 2027, the 31-story building will stand above all timber towers in the United States but is expected to be the second tallest such structure in the world, following a building in Australia that should be completed sooner.
The Neutral Edison will be the 11th tallest building in Milwaukee. But timber has the potential to shape the upper edges of the city's skyline. Its developer proposes to build a 55-story timber tower on the site next door that would be the city's — and Wisconsin's — tallest building. But the same-height building in Chicago wouldn't even make the top 50 here.
Not surprisingly, when there's a tall building to be discussed, there's a Chicago connection. The architects for the Neutral Edison are Chicago-based Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture. Hartshorne Plunkard isn't new to the timber game, having designed the mixed-use INTRO Cleveland project that was the largest mass timber project in the United States when it was completed in 2022. Its design for the Neutral Edison will be a conventional rectangular apartment block with a large grid pattern inscribed across each of its facades. Setbacks between the parking at its base and the rest of the tower will reveal building amenities as well as the structure's typical wood decking. It's simple, straightforward and elegant in a way that we expect in Chicago.
Abundant supplies of wood and its adaptability to most construction have made it a favorite throughout architectural history. But steel and concrete became predominant in larger buildings from the late 19th century onward when cities such as Chicago and Milwaukee came into their own.
The more recent use of wood in large-scale construction has been fueled by an awareness of a contemporary building's carbon footprint. Buildings — both through construction and operation — have typically contributed almost 40% of the carbon that drives global warming. In recent years, architects, engineers and developers have sought to lower these numbers substantially. Steel and concrete are carbon-intensive, but wood does not require large quantities of carbon to manufacture. Also, trees absorb carbon during their life and continue to sequester the element during their lifetimes as building materials. Thus, wood offers a significant benefit to offset carbon throughout a building's life.
For all the stunning achievements that Chicago architects and engineers have accomplished over the last century and a half, there's still a deeply conservative streak that runs through the city's building culture. Fire, through several key historical events, is at fault. The Great Chicago Fire (1871), the Iroquois Theater fire (1903) and the conflagration that leveled the original McCormick Place (1967) all have had impacts on Chicago, and the world's, approach to fire prevention and management. So, perhaps it's not surprising that we now lag many places in the development of new construction with mass timber.
Chicago was early to the sustainability movement, which Mayor Richard M. Daley initially embraced and which each of his predecessors continued to varying degrees. And Chicago's architects and engineers have helped lead in the sector as well. It's not that we don't have larger wood structures throughout the city. Late 19th century loft buildings, from River North to Fulton Market to the Near West Side, are generally made of mass timber. And the most recent changes to the city's building code, adopted in 2020, are open to the larger structures such as those in Milwaukee.
Burt Ald. Natarus was wrong. Chicago didn't need a building by Calatrava to secure its place in architectural history — although there's no reason we couldn't or wouldn't welcome a design by the talented architect. Nor do we need to best Milwaukee in any particular aspect.
But it does seem like a missed opportunity that there's no timber tower currently under construction here. Given that many of the technologies that have made tall buildings possible were either invented or perfected here, why hasn't Chicago embraced this more sustainable way to build tall buildings yet?
Full disclosure: A decade ago, I ran communications for the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Chicago office while it developed the Timber Tower Research Project, an early proof of concept for wood in high-rise construction. And for the last 2 1/2 years, I have been a content creator for Think Wood, a website funded by the Softwood Lumber Board. The opinions in my column are solely my own.
Edward Keegan writes, broadcasts and teaches on architectural subjects. Keegan's biweekly architecture column is supported by a grant from former Tribune critic Blair Kamin, as administered by the not-for-profit Journalism Funding Partners. The Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.