Mass timber building has been a popular topic in architecture, and it’s rare that the industry has a code change that creates excitement rather than dread. But when rich wood environments can be created for commercial buildings extending to 18 stories in height, the new possibility sparks new ideas — and excitement.

Mass timber is a wood framing system category that can be used for walls, floors and roof construction. It is commonly deployed with large, solid wood panels or planks that are fabricated from smaller pieces of wood and brought together through a variety of methods, like laminating and nailing. The designer has myriad ways to assemble these into a total building design, from an all-wood solution to a hybrid of wood, steel and concrete.