Wood Innovations accelerates mass timber construction in New York City
NEW YORK — An innovative USDA Forest Service-supported project shows promise of adding a little wood to the Big Apple’s skyline in the coming years.
The New York City Mass Timber Studio received a $125,000 Wood Innovations grant for a project to accelerate construction with mass timber, an engineered wood product that can include cross-laminated timber, glue-laminated timber or other engineered wood products.
Kevin Naranjo, the Forest Service national program lead for mass timber and the project liaison, collaborated with local partners to develop the “accelerator” — an initiative intended to speed up the adoption of a new technology, process or material in a metropolitan area — to promote the use of mass timber. Partners included the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, American Institute of Architects New York, Softwood Lumber Board and WoodWorks.
“Mass timber is an engineered wood product which can include cross-laminated timber, glue-laminated timber, and other engineered wood products,” said Naranjo.
“This is the second accelerator we did,” Naranjo said. “The first one was in Boston and was successful in increasing mass timber construction.”
The NYC Mass Timber Studio is a nine-month technical assistance accelerator for seven timber projects in preliminary planning and design.
“In New York City, that’s a big deal,” Naranjo said of the number of applicants.
Markets for wood products support management of healthy, resilient forests, and accelerators for mass timber are intended to facilitate both environmental and economic benefits. “Several cities have signed on to reduce their carbon footprint,” Naranjo said. “This project exposes the building community to mass timber construction. The goal of this project is it leads to more mass timber buildings and ideally mass timber manufacturing in the Northeast.”
Gizem Karagoz, NYCEDC Innovation Industries senior project manager, saw the project’s success as tied to collaboration. “NYC Mass Timber Studio was launched with the ambition to catalyze innovation and collaboration across the design and construction industry,” Karagoz said. “Through its first iteration, the Studio cultivated strong strategic partnerships and surfaced key lessons learned by the selected teams on the opportunities and constraints of successfully delivering mass timber projects in New York City, moving them closer to successful completion.”
New York City sent out a request for applications for active development projects to apply and participate in the program. NYCEDC, as the program operator, set the selection requirements and coordinated program activities, including office hours with the New York City Department of Buildings for the selected project teams to talk about regulatory considerations of the design and construction of mass timber structures within their project sites. Participants were required to develop preliminary designs, lifecycle analyses and cost comparisons in their building proposals.
NYC Mass Timber Studio is also setting the groundwork for the future. “The city made mass timber part of their climate strategy,” Naranjo said. “The Department of Buildings established guidance to their code compliance pathways related to tall timber. Together these initiatives are sending a signal the city would like to see mass timber. The project showed there was a strong appetite in New York City for mass timber by architects and developers.”
Karagoz sees a similar benefit in how lessons learned today will carry forward. “Conversations between the Studio project teams, the Department of Buildings and WoodWorks were essential to navigate regulatory questions, share resources and build capacity for all stakeholders who will engage with a mass timber project across its lifecycle,” Karagoz said. “Following these engagements, the Department of Buildings issued a Technical Bulletin providing clarification to the specific requirements regarding mass timber construction. This not only creates a path forward for projects participating in the Studio, but also establishes code compliance pathways for future mass timber projects in NYC.”
She also sees an impact well beyond this one city. “New York City is the largest city in the United States,” Karagoz said. “Other cities are paying attention to this. Five other cities are interested in partnering on an accelerator project because of this project. We have a housing shortage in rural areas. We have a housing shortage in urban areas too.”
New York City’s Wood Innovations grant started in early 2024 and will probably last another year. To learn about Wood Innovations projects across the United States, visit the Wood Innovations Project Search page.