America’s Tallest Timber Student Housing Tops Out in Columbus

Twelve storeys of Alabama timber went up over a concrete podium at 44 panels a day, finishing nearly ten weeks ahead of a November target.

woodcentral
woodcentral
Fri 11 September 26
The thirteen-storey INTRO Columbus under construction, sheathed timber floors below two unclad levels of exposed glulam framing, an American flag hung from the top level, a tower crane above and an open concrete podium at street level
INTRO Columbus on the morning of the topping out, with the flag flying from the last framed level and the single-storey concrete podium open at street level. Twelve timber floors sit above it, built at 44 cross-laminated timber panels a day. (Photo Credit: Infinite Impact for DLR Group)

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The tallest mass-timber student housing building in the United States has topped out, with Harbor Bay Ventures celebrating the final panel alongside its crews at The Ohio State University on Tuesday. That is according to DLR Group, the design firm on the 13-storey INTRO Columbus, which reached 48 metres ten weeks ahead of a November target.

“Every beam we put in place on this project brings us one step closer to students moving in next summer,” Mark Bell said. The Harbor Bay Ventures chief executive marked the milestone a year to the day after work started at High Street and Ninth Avenue. The tower will carry 493 beds across 186 units when residents move in for the 2027-28 academic year.

Guests in white hard hats and high-visibility vests lean over a large cross-laminated timber panel laid flat on the street, signing it with marker pens, with the concrete podium of the building and a red brick block behind
The project team signs the final cross-laminated timber panel at High Street and Ninth Avenue on 8 September, a year to the day after work started. (Photo Credit: Infinite Impact for DLR Group)

Prefabrication and a design team that coordinated the timber and the connections from day one drove that pace, DLR Group told Wood Central. Crews put up two and a half floors every two to three weeks, and the panels arrived cut to spec.

SmartLam North America manufactured the glulam columns, beams, and cross-laminated timber panels in Alabama, and 44 panels went up on an average day. Forefront Structural Engineers designed the frame on wood-to-wood connections for the glulam columns, with off-the-shelf Simpson Strong-Tie connectors at the beam-to-column joints.

“Every day we save on the superstructure is a day the other trades get back, and that compounds,” Josh Dortzbach said. Those concealed connectors are expected to achieve a two-hour fire-resistance rating, and Forefront’s composite connectors tie the topping slabs to the timber deck.

Twelve of the 13 levels are timber, and a single-storey concrete podium carries the ground floor beneath them. The International Code Council caps Type IV-B mass timber at 12 storeys and 180 feet, and the tower stands 158 feet.

Dusk render of the completed INTRO Columbus, a thirteen-storey tower in pale vertical cladding with warm lit windows and a glazed ground floor, cars and cyclists on the street corner below
INTRO Columbus as designed, with a brick masonry base answering the neighbourhood and 493 beds above it. The image is a render supplied by the architect, not a photograph. (Image Credit: DLR Group)

“The erection went about as smoothly as you could ask for,” Shane Warner said. The Elford Construction superintendent has crews on the lower floors now, where wall panels and windows are already going in. Interior framing and services are underway beneath the timber, and concrete masonry work has begun.

Milwaukee’s 25-storey Ascent still stands at 87 metres, the country’s tallest mass-timber building, and the Columbus record covers student housing alone. Neutral’s 31-storey Edison, drawn to take the national title, stopped work in September 2025, and a judge cleared its riverfront site for foreclosure in June.

Canada reached higher with students eight years ago, and the 18-storey Brock Commons Tallwood House has stood at the University of British Columbia since 2017. INTRO Columbus is the first mass-timber building in Columbus, and the second in Central Ohio after the three-storey COhatch office at Powell.

Render of an open-plan student apartment with an exposed glulam beam crossing the ceiling, a timber-lined ceiling panel, a full-height timber column beside the window and a kitchen island in the foreground
Exposed glulam beams and columns inside a residential unit. Ceilings stay exposed across half the building, including every bedroom and living room. The image is a render, not a photograph. (Image Credit: DLR Group)

Two storeys came off the drawings before the record was set, with Harbor Bay first proposing 15 storeys and 219 units on the corner. It cut the height to win approval from the University Area Commission in April 2024, and the commission also approved a building without a garage. The developer argued that a garage was unnecessary on one of the city’s busiest bus routes.

Harbor Bay built INTRO Cleveland first, a nine-storey block in Ohio City it calls the country’s largest timber-framed building rather than the tallest. The developer also bought 13 rental buildings on West Ninth Avenue, keeping 132 units that average less than US$700 per month.

Alabama timber rather than European timber cut the project’s transport-related emissions by 55 per cent, DLR Group told Wood Central. The frame will hold 1,128 tonnes of carbon, compared with an equivalent concrete-and-steel structure, the firm says. SmartLam has expanded its Alabama and Montana plants on US Forest Service grants.

“Our design made a point of keeping timber exposed everywhere a resident spends time, not just in the lobby,” Cameron Jacobson said. Ceilings stay exposed across half the building, including every bedroom and living room, the DLR Group project architect told an Urban Land Institute tour.

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