INTRO

This two-acre mixed-use project was built on a prime location, across the street from Cleveland’s oldest publicly-owned market. Because of the prominent site, the developer’s goal was to deliver an innovative, lifestyle residential building that would complement its iconic neighbor. Mass timber delivered with an aesthetic and sustainability ethos that make INTRO distinct. The building includes nearly 300 market-rate apartments, an upscale restaurant, retail space, and rooftop event venue. It achieved LEED Gold BD+C certification, and was the first and largest U.S. LEED Gold project to utilize mass timber at the time of completion. With eight stories of mass timber over a one-level podium, it was also one of the first buildings to take advantage of the tall wood provisions in the 2021 International Building Code. But, because the 2021 IBC had not yet been adopted by the state at the time of entitlement, INTRO’s design team had to go the extra mile to provide additional testing data and demonstrate mass timber safety and fire resistance, setting the stage for future developments in the region. 

See the business case study for this project. The case study series aims to fill a gap in available information related to the financial performance of U.S. properties constructed with mass timber structural systems in buildings across various product sub-types. Using transparent quantitative data, each of the 10 case studies analyzes how mass timber has created value and provides a qualitative overview of successes, challenges, and lessons learned from the developer/owner perspective.


Watch a short one-minute video of this project, which was selected as a 2023 Wood Design Awards winner. View the full award gallery here.