TALL TIMBER: Michael Green and the Evolution of Mass Timber

The Skyscraper Museum continues its “Mass Timber Semester” lecture series, which brings together key voices in the Mass Timber movement to reflect on its short history, current condition, and promising future, with an IN-PERSON program at the Museum’s Lower Manhattan gallery, where you can view our related exhibition, TALL TIMBER: The Future of Cities in Wood.

Vancouver architect Michael Green is a pioneer of the Mass Timber movement in North America. Since his 2012 publication “The Case for Tall Wood Buildings” and inspiring 2013 TED Talk “Why We Should Build Wooden Skyscrapers,” Green has been a clarion voice in spreading the message of an all-wood architecture that is healthy, affordable, and sustainable. In his lecture, Michael will share the history and evolution of tall wood buildings from some of the earliest examples to his design thinking today, as outlined in “The Natural Building Blocks of Sustainable Architecture,” his 2023 TED Talk.

Throughout his career, Green has advocated for multi-story buildings in the pursuit of creating a more sustainable future. His talk will focus on both proposed conceptual projects and built work, from his design for North America’s first modern tall wood structure – at almost 100 feet – completed in 2014, to his current designs for the world’s tallest timber tower – at 55 stories – in Milwaukee.