Goose Island May See Chicago’s First Modern Wooden Office Building

Commercial construction with wood has been missing from Chicago since the Great Chicago Fire in 1872. Now it may be coming back. Hines Interests of Houston is seeking zoning approval for a seven story engineered wooden truss office building at 1017 West Division Street on Goose Island. Cambridge University’s Center for Natural Material Innovation says developments in manufacturing of engineered wood building components, together with other engineering designs for concrete floor fire separation, make fire a perception problem rather than a real risk. The Center’s Dr. Michael Ramage says “Very big pieces of wood are quite hard to set on fire – they aren’t kindling material.”

It will be interesting to see whether the Chicago City Council will agree with Dr. Ramage’s risk assessment.