River Beech Tower

Created as part of a masterplan along the Chicago River, the River Beech Tower is a residential high-rise which, if built, would be taller than any existing timber building. The collaborative team behind the River Beech consists of Perkins+Will architects, the engineers of Thornton Tomasetti and the University of Cambridge. Currently the project is a conceptual academic and professional undertaking, and the team state that it could potentially be realized by the time of the masterplan’s final phases. 

Existing timber skyscraper proposals come in at around 30-40 stories, such as C.F. Møller and Dinell Johnasson’s 34-story residential building in Stockholm, set to be completed in 2023. SOM have also developed a system that shows the possibility of a 42-story building as part of their Timber Tower Research Project. Completed or soon-to-be complete timber buildings stand a little shorter, with Acton Ostry Architects’ 18-story student residence currently under construction in Vancouver and the 10-story Forte apartment building in Melbourne.

The River Beech Tower seeks to provide the understanding necessary to design and construct tall buildings using today’s new generation of engineered timber materials. Structures designed with timber will be lighter weight, require less material, and have less environmental impact than their steel or concrete counterparts. Trees entrain carbon as they grow, meaning even after the manufacturing process, engineered timber is inherently carbon neutral or better. In terms of overall carbon emissions, selecting a wood structure may be the single most impactful strategy the design team can make. By pushing the limits of what is possible with today’s materials, this project provides insight into the likely requirements and opportunities for the engineered timber and plant-based materials of tomorrow.

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Materials provided by Perkins+Will (Architecture); Thornton Tomasetti (Structural and Façade Engineering), University of Cambridge (Materials Engineering and Research)