Tall Timber: The Future of Cities in Timber
Coming December 2025 - February 2026!
What is Mass Timber?
How we plan cities can create or solve big problems. Should cities store or emit carbon? Can they quickly close housing and affordability gaps with modern, quality apartments? How can cities contribute to forest health and resilience – and rural economies? Wood, one of humanity’s oldest construction materials, now takes the form of Mass Timber. These large, engineered materials empower us to create big, beautiful buildings faster – and with a much lower “carbon cost” than ever before – while contributing to healthy forests. In Michigan and beyond.
The technology of Mass Timber relies on manufacturing wood products that are bigger, stronger, and more fire resistant and durable than common lumber or plywood. Designers, builders, and manufacturers use computers to design and precisely cut giant puzzle pieces of structure that are transported to and assembled on site. To date, Mass Timber building systems have been used in more than 100 high-rises – and thousands of other buildings – worldwide since the first 9-story project in 2009. Its popularity is spreading as buildings grow taller, with structures up to 18 stories now covered by the International Building Code.
Mass Timber can greatly reduce the harmful environmental impact of new buildings. The traditional materials of high-rise construction are produced by extractive industries that, through mining and heating, emit even more carbon – called “embodied energy.” By contrast, during photosynthesis, trees turn sunlight into oxygen and capture and store carbon long term. Combining the embodied and stored carbon savings, a mass timber structure can have a 76-94% lower global warming potential than other options.
Tall buildings multiply these benefits, especially in high-density scenarios. This exhibition examines recent tall buildings in Mass Timber and proposals for its role in a more sustainable, low-carbon future for our cities and our planet.
TALL TIMBER: The Future of Cities in Wood
MassTimber@MSU and Michigan Department of Natural Resources, with sponsorship support from Bedrock, Rossetti, Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights, and The Christman Company, are hosting the traveling exhibit TALL TIMBER: The Future of Cities in Wood.
This exhibit introduces mass timber to the general public, leaders, and decision-makers – and deepens engagement by practitioners through architectural models, material samples, videos, drawings, and photography that present some of the most interesting, innovative, and beautiful examples of buildings conceived in this new system of design and construction. The exhibition features designs for mixed-use office buildings, social housing, and apartments, as well as models of theoretical projects for Mass Timber towers of 30 to 80 stories
The exhibition originated at the Chicago Architecture Center in 2023, entitled “REFRAMED” (co-curated by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats). Then an expanded and reconfigured version of the exhibit was on display for 18 months at the NYC Skyscraper Museum. We are now bringing this unique and engaging exhibit to Detroit!
Featured Michigan Mass Timber Projects
- WMU New Student Housing - Kalamazoo, MI
- Griffith Veterinary Hospital - Westland, MI
- Vineyard View Apartments - Suttons Bay, MI
- Community Center at AB Ford Park - Detroit, MI
- DNR Newberry Customer Service Center - Newberry, MI
- Ann Arbor Public Schools, Mitchell Elementary - Ann Arbor, MI
- The Rink at Stine Community Park - Troy, MI
- UM College of Pharmacy - Ann Arbor, MI
- MSU STEM Teaching and Learning Facility - East Lansing, MI
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