Ascent MKE

Ascent MKE is a residential high-rise in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, built as a mass timber hybrid and recorded as the tallest mass timber structure in the world, edging out the Mjøstårnet in Brumunddal, Norway. It rises 25 stories to about 284 feet, or 87 meters. Plans were unveiled in 2018 with 21 floors, and updates and approvals brought the total to 25 floors in March 2020. Construction began in August 2020 and the building was completed in August 2022. It holds 259 apartments together with retail space, an elevated pool with operable window walls and a sky-deck. A United States Department of Agriculture grant awarded in May 2019 through the Forest Service Wood Innovations program assisted with the testing needed to show that mass timber could perform as well as concrete and steel under United States building codes. The project was presented at the 2018 and 2019 international CTBUH conferences.