If it is built, the conceptual River Beech Tower — conceived as part of the Chicago River masterplan — will be the tallest timber building in the world.
Architects Perkins+Will, engineers Thornton Tomasetti and the University of Cambridge have developed the conceptual idea for the residential highise. ArchDaily reports that “the team state that it could potentially be realized by the time of the masterplan’s final phases.”
The team believes that they will be able to “reach far greater heights than any existing timber building” using only “real, commercially available timber materials.”
“While very striking and certainly unique, the wild high-rise concept from Perkins + Will is not the first proposal for a wooden skyscraper along the Chicago River,” Curbed Chicago reports, associating the design with the Riverline project, where a 29 story tower with 420 units, is currently under construction.