MILWAUKEE’S FIRST MASS TIMBER BUILDING DRIVEN BY SUSTAINABILITY
Environmental sustainability was the main factor for using specially treated lumber, instead of steel and concrete, for developer Ann Pieper Eisenbrown’s newly opened Walker’s Point apartment building. But those building materials also look good, she said. “It’s not just another box,” Eisenbrown said on a recent tour of Timber Lofts, 300 W. Florida St. “We hope it sets us apart in the marketplace,” she said.
The 60-unit apartment building was constructed with a technique known as mass timber, or cross laminated timber. Nearly 60% of the units have been leased, and residents have started moving into their apartments.
The mass timber process uses layers of wood pressed together to create columns, beams and other building frame components.
Apartments, offices and other buildings made from timber provide a lower carbon footprint than conventional construction. They also can create a more attractive atmosphere, featuring exposed wood interiors.
That’s not unlike the exposed timber columns found in late 19th-century industrial buildings constructed in Walker’s Point, the Historic Third Ward and other older neighborhoods — and later converted to housing, offices and other new uses.
The difference with mass timber is that the building parts are engineered to be as strong as steel, and resistant to fire and earthquakes.
Their strength allows them to be used in modern mid-rise and high-rise buildings — eclipsing the old limits of conventional wood frames.
The technique has been used in Europe for around 25 years.
Thanks to a greater focus on sustainability, mass timber has more recently been gaining popularity in the United States, said Blaine Brownell, professor and director of the University of North Carolina-Charlotte School of Architecture.
Timber Lofts is Milwaukee’s first mass timber building.
And it blends that modern method, with its exposed interior wood components, with a historic building that has old-school timber columns.
The historic five-story building was constructed in 1891 for gas stove manufacturer Lindemann and Hoverson Co., according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.
That building, at 331 S. Third St., was later used by Louis Bass Co. before those operations closed.
Eisenbrown’s firm, Pieper Properties Inc., last year began renovating the former Louis Bass building, and developing the four-story addition.
The project moved relatively quickly because the mass timber parts are built off site before being assembled, said Dan Wood, a project superintendent for Catalyst Construction LLC, Timber Lofts’ builder.
“It is just a giant slab of wood,” he said. “It’s a pretty straight forward product. And that’s part of the beauty.”
Indeed, the costs of using mass timber are roughly the same as conventional construction materials, Eisenbrown said.
The $14.6 million total project’s financing includes just over $2 million in state and federal historic preservation tax credits, Eisenbrown said. First Business Bank is the lender, and is buying the tax credits.
The interior design for Timber Lofts features exposed wood components, said Tim Wolosz, project architect and a principal at Engberg Anderson Inc.
That includes a sleek, warm look for the lobby, which also doubles as the apartment building’s open-concept community room.
“The cleaner it is, the better it usually looks,” Wolosz said.
The community room will include space for residents to work with views of West Florida Street, and the pedestrian activity that helps define Walker’s Point, Eisenbrown said.
That’s designed, in part, to give people a change of scenery after they’ve been working in their apartments during the pandemic, she said.
It also will be a shared social space, including a large-screen TV “once sports comes back,” Eisenbrown said.
The individual apartments in the new portion of Timber Lofts also incorporate the mass timber elements into their design with exposed columns — just as the building’s historic portion has timber columns from the 19th century.
The mass timber components help provide a strong layer of soundproofing between the apartments, Wolosz said.
“It seems like a more hardy building” than one constructed with conventional materials, he said.
Timber Lofts has mostly studio and one-bedroom units, with just five twobedroom units.
About half of the units rent for $1,300 a month or less, with most of the apartments so far being rented by single people in their 20s and 30s, Eisenbrown said.
The building also has 4,000 square feet of street-level commercial space that has not yet been leased.
Meanwhile, plans are proceeding for what would be Milwaukee’s first mass timber high-rise.
New Land Enterprises LLP hopes to begin building the $80 million Ascent in August, said Tim Gokhman, managing director.
Ascent is to be built at 700 E. Kilbourn Ave., where a former Edwardo’s Pizza was deconstructed this spring.
That 25-story tower with up to 265 apartments would be among the world’s tallest mass timber buildings. Ascent would take around 22 months to construct.
Ascent’s general contractor is a joint venture between C.D. Smith Inc. and Catalyst Construction. Korb + Associates is the architect, with San Francisco-based Swinerton serving as mass timber consultant.
Monthly rents start at $1,610 for a one-bedroom unit.
At Timber Lofts, Eisenbrown has found that renters are mainly attracted by such factors as the building’s location, design and amenities.
But, she said, the use of mass timber, and its sustainability, is “an added attraction.”