DSPS launches task force to study mass-timber regulations

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The Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services has formed a task force to examine the use of mass timber in commercial buildings.

The group will inform the Commercial Building Code Council as it works to revise Wisconsin’s building code. The task force is looking at the regulatory process for mass timber as crews build the 25-story Ascent tower in Milwaukee, which would be the largest building in the world put up with mass timber.

Mass timber is emerging as an alternative to concrete in commercial construction because it can be obtained in an environmental manner and reduce buildings’ carbon footprints. The task force will meet virtually and is expected to draw up by the end of the year a set of guidelines for using mass timber.

“We remain committed to modernizing our commercial building code to reflect current science and allow emerging materials and practices that promote sustainability while maintaining safety during construction and in our built environment,” DSPS Secretary Dawn Crim said in a statement. “We have an opportunity to leverage the work that has already been done in Milwaukee to demonstrate the safety of mass timber, and, in the spirit of efficiency and progress, we want to capture that as we update our commercial building code.”

To begin work on the Ascent tower, the design team for the project had to obtain variances from Wisconsin code requirements. The DSPS task force consists of several people familiar with the Ascent project, and the guidelines the group draws up are expected to pull from the work it took to gain approval for the tower.

Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Design and USDA Forest Products Laboratory, which has buildings on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus, are studying the safety of mass-timber products.

The members of the task force are:

• Richard Paur, chair of the DSPS Commercial Building Code Council
• Justin Gavin, bureau chief of DSPS’ Integrated Services Section
• Laura Hasburgh, materials research engineer, USDA Forest Product Laboratory
• Michael Mazmanian, operations director of the city of Milwaukee’s Department of Neighborhood Services
• John Peronto, senior principal at Thornton Tomasetti
• Erich Roden, deputy chief, Milwaukee Fire Department
• Alexander Timmer, assistant professor at UW-Milwaukee’s School of Architecture & Urban Planning