Milwaukee is building contemporary timber towers

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.