2024-05-05T02:42:00-04:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150073761/record-setting-12-story-timber-tower-slated-for-downtown-portland-gets-the-axe Mackenzie Goldberg 2018-07-17T19:52:00-04:00 >2024-03-15T01:45:58-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/5f/5f50332d231b00c2555eac0c5127760e.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>In 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture decided to run a&nbsp;<a href="https://archinect.com/news/article/110956491/u-s-department-of-agriculture-launches-tall-wood-building-prize-competition" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">pilot program</a> to support two tall wood demonstration projects in order to test the potential of the increasingly popular building material. The first was a&nbsp;10-story residential tower in Chelsea designed by <a href="https://archinect.com/SHoP" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SHoP</a>. The second, a <a href="https://archinect.com/news/article/150011539/first-mass-timber-high-rise-building-to-be-permitted-in-the-us-is-coming-to-portland" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">12-story</a> high rise slated for downtown Portland's Pearl District that would've been the tallest building in the country to use cross-laminated timber.<br></p> <p>The New York project was scrapped last year, made unfeasible by a cooled-off real estate market and regulations prohibiting wooden towers over six stories that would've required onerous finagling. The deal to build Oregon's record-setting wooden tower, though, was still moving forward.&nbsp;</p> <p>Designed by the Portland-based firm <a href="https://archinect.com/leverarchitecture" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LEVER Architecture</a>, the project had received a promising amount of support and pledge of public dollars. Money from&nbsp;the USDA's Tall Wood Building award helped fund testing and research; the Portland Housing Bureau had promised $6 milli...</p>