For residents of a Milwaukee tower to admire the wood holding it up, samples of the material first had to undergo a trial by fire. Literally.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture burned the glue-laminated timber columns for three hours in a lab, the longest test ever conducted for the material in the states. The 2019 examination helped persuade local officials to grant developer New Land Enterprises variances to build the 284-foot tower with timber and expose more of it than is usually allowed.