In 2022, hardly a week passed on Archinect without the hottest construction material of the year making the news: Mass timber was everywhere — in novel conceptual proposals, competition-winning entries, experimental school projects, and, increasingly so, in completed, real-life, and often record-shattering buildings. 

And for a good reason. With the world finally realizing the built environment's profound impact on global carbon emissions, more and more architects (and clients!) started ditching the long-time darling concrete due to its abysmal environmental performance and favoring carbon-trapping timber products, which have also been attributed to increased building comfort for its occupants. 

As part of Archinect's ongoing 2022 Year in Review series, let's take a look at some of the mass timber story highlights in our news this year.

A selection of completed buildings this year

World's tallest mass timber tower opens in Milwaukee

Of all the mass timber building typologies, none grabs headlines like tall timber. While lofty wooden skyscraper schemes have been pitched for years now, actually realized timber high-rises have been coming online at increasing frequency now. One record-setting example, the 25-story, 284-foot Ascent tower, opened in Milwaukee this summer and took the crown of the world's tallest mass timber tower from the previous record holder, Norway’s Mjøsa Tower.

Check out the process behind Apex Plaza, the new tallest mass timber building on the East Coast

Further east, in Charlottesville, Virginia, the 187,000-square-foot Apex Plaza building celebrated its completion this year, making it the new tallest mass timber structure in its region while also boasting a host of sustainability features. Take a look at the fascinating construction photos we featured in May.

Inside LMN Architects’ exposed mass timber hall at the University of Washington

In Seattle, the University of Washington's Foster School of Business opened its new 84,800-square-foot Founders Hall to students and faculty. Designed by LMN Architects as the first fully mass timber building on UW's campus, the structure features cross-laminated timber floors and glulam posts and beams.

'First of its kind' mass timber office extension completed in Washington DC

Hickok Cole and Arup made a case for using the material to expand existing buildings by adding a three-story timber extension atop a seven-story concrete building in Washington, D.C. According to the team, the 108,000-square-foot addition is also the “first high-rise overbuild timber structure in North America.”

Take a first look inside Adidas' new North American Headquarters

LEVER Architecture, together with collaborators Studio O+A, were able to take home a coveted Wood Design Award this year for their Adidas North American Headquarters design, an ensemble of two hybrid mass timber structures in Portland, Oregon. 

Arup completes the Netherlands' tallest timber-hybrid residential building

In Amsterdam, meanwhile, Arup completed the 21-story, 240-foot HAUT tower, which they say is now the Netherlands’ tallest timber-hybrid residential building. Featuring a slate of carbon-reducing methods, the structure serves as a prototype for the city's commitment to building at least one in five buildings using primarily timber by 2025.

A few proposed concepts to keep an eye on

A new mass timber proposal in Zanzibar would challenge Milwaukee's Ascent tower for the world record

Ascent Tower's claim to tall timber greatness didn't go unchallenged this year as other high-rise proposals vowed to snatch the title in the future. One stand-out scheme in Zanzibar, Tanzania, could — if realized — do just that: The 28-story, 315-foot-tall Burj Zanzibar timber tower would surpass Ascent's roofline by a sizeable margin.

A new tall mass timber proposal is heating up the race to the top in Toronto

In Toronto, meanwhile, the 31-story 191-199 College Street residential tower hopes to reign supreme in the near future — once it can convince local officials to grant the development a building code exemption to get around Ontario's 12-story height limit for wooden buildings.

Construction begins on SHoP's record-setting Atlassian HQ hybrid timber tower

In the southern hemisphere, the SHoP-designed 39-story Australian Atlassian HQ is off to a good start, with news of its construction commencing coming out in September. Once completed in 2026, the 1.2 million-square-foot structure will stand as the world’s tallest hybrid timber tower.

DLR Group and Hines collaborate on Chicago's first mass timber office building

The new T3 building planned for Chicago would make history not only as the city’s first mass timber office structure but also as one of the first major timber buildings since the Great Chicago Fire more than 150 years ago. 

In a separate story this year, we looked at how the rise of tall mass timber development could herald a wooden renaissance in Chicago.

Herzog & de Meuron designs a mass timber mixed-use development in Austin

Even concrete-loving Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron opted for mass timber to feature prominently in their first project in Texas. The Sixth & Blanco mixed-use development plans to create an entire neighborhood within a continuous horizontal wooden structure near downtown Austin.

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