Construction Type Selection & Multi-Family Housing + MSU Tour

Regional In-Person Seminar + Tour (East Lansing, MI)

Join us for a unique two-part event featuring an educational seminar on mass timber design, followed by a firsthand look at Michigan State University’s STEM Teaching and Learning Facility.

Mid-Rise Mass Timber: Construction Type Selection & Opportunities for Multi-Family Housing (2.0 AIA/CES HSW LU, 2.0 PDH credits or 0.20 ICC credits)

Opportunities for mid-rise mass timber construction are expanding, particularly in multi-family housing, as recent International Building Code (IBC) updates allow mass timber in buildings up to 18 stories. This session will explore construction type selection, critical early design decisions, and the use of mass timber in 4- to 12-story residential and mixed-use projects—including hybrid systems that combine mass timber with light-frame wood construction to address the “missing middle” in housing. Participants will review key code considerations, including construction types, allowable heights and areas, and fire-resistance requirements, with a focus on strategies for exposed timber.

Tour MSU’s Mass Timber STEM Teaching and Learning Facility (1.0 AIA/CES HSW LU, 1.0 PDH credit or 0.10 ICC credit)

Following the presentation, attendees can tour MSU’s 121,000 square-foot STEM Building, which pioneered the first significant use of cross-laminated timber (CLT) in the state. The project features three stories of glulam post-and-beam construction with steel diagonal bracing, CLT floor and roof decks, and CLT walls in egress stairs. The tour format encourages questions and discussion, and attendees will learn about the project’s design, execution, and various detailing and construction techniques utilized throughout the building.