INSIDE
F
rom the construction of tene-
ments in the 1800s to the high-
rise steel and concrete luxury
residential towers built today,
for-rent housing has come a
long way. But one constant is the
use of wood to build rental hous-
ing. Over the years, architects and
engineers have pushed the limits of
what wood can do, and the adoption
of the 2015 International Building
Code allows this to continue.
Not everyone is happy though.
There has been some recent back-
lash about the number of four- and
five-story wood-frame apartments
impacting Denver’s downtown. With
continued demand
for housing, esca-
lating construction
prices and the abil-
ity to achieve even
higher densities
under the recent
IBC, we don’t antic-
ipate the number
of new wood-frame
buildings added to
the Denver land-
scape will dimin-
ish.
The most sig-
nificant benefit the new IBC offers
wood-frame construction is the
ability to design a podium building
based on the overall building height.
Podium buildings will no longer
be restricted to only one level of
podium structure below the podium
deck.
This gives designers the ability to
design a seven-story, midrise build-
ing with five levels of wood-frame
construction over two levels of con-
crete podium – all above grade. With
this additional above-grade level of
concrete, the flexibility and oppor-
tunities to increase density, reduce
cost or both become possible.
Options include pulling the tra-
ditional below-grade level parking
out of the ground to save the cost of
building subterranean, which is typi-
cal in traditional podium designs.
Another option would be to leave
the subterranean parking, which
allows an additional level of residen-
tial units within the concrete por-
tion of the structure, thus increasing
density. Both options will change
how the design world and residen-
tial developers look at the potential
of a site.
When evaluating an apartment
site, a developer typically considers
four wood-frame apartment designs:
Photography © Brad Nicol
The 2015 International Building Code offers wood-frame construction the ability to design a podium building based on the overall building height. Podium buildings will no longer be restricted
to only one level of podium structure below the podium deck.
Nathan Sciarra,
AIA
Studio director,
KTGY Architecture
+ Planning, Denver
