Realizing Mass Timber’s Benefits: Key Design Decisions and Carbon Analysis

As interest in and use of mass timber in the U.S. has grown, so too has interest in pushing these timber structures to greater heights. Using international examples of successful tall wood buildings as precedent, some designers have proposed tall wood projects in the states using a project-specific performance-based design approach. In order to provide a uniform set of code provisions for these tall wood buildings, the International Code Council established an ad hoc committee on tall wood buildings that proposed a set of code changes allowing up to 18 stories of mass timber construction. Those code changes were announced as approved in January 2019 and will become part of the 2021 International Building Code. Following a brief discussion of history and motivators, this presentation will introduce the new tall wood code provisions and construction types, as well as the technical research and testing that supported their adoption.

Speaker: John O’Donald II, PE | WoodWorks

Credits: Attendees can earn 2.0 AIA/CES HSW LUs, 2.0 PDH credits or 0.2 ICC credits

Online Attendees:

• WoodWorks will send each attendee a certificate of completion within 2 weeks via email.
• Please note that to receive a certificate, attendees must stay for the duration of the event.

For questions or additional information, please contact:

LeeAnn Charpentier, CMP | leeann.charpentier@woodworks.org | (301) 633-0330

Image: INTRO Cleveland / Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture / Forefront Structural Engineers / Fast + Epp / photo Nick Johnson, Tour D Space