Mass timber is a unique, non-commodity building material and, to lay the
groundwork for success, certain critical decisions must be made as early as possible. These decisions can have a big impact on cost and can either increase or limit opportunities later in design. There are many cases of project teams that want to realize the full benefits of mass timber, but, because they base their designs on traditional building practices instead of optimizing them for mass timber, end up with avoidable price premiums. This presentation will walk through early project decisions and design steps, focusing on how to optimize projects for mass timber and how one early decision can influence others.

Topics will include construction types, fire ratings, column grids and beam/panel spans, lateral systems, and MEP integra-on. Completed mass timber projects will be used to illustrate the variety of viable options when navigating these key decisions.