We are excited to share that Jon Guttello  will be speaking at the 10th Annual Young Engineers Symposium , hosted by the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois . The symposium brings together emerging professionals from across the region for a day focused on connection, learning, discussion, and professional growth. Jon’s presentation will focus on the three hour mass timber fire test  in which Forefront recently participated. The testing provided valuable real world da

I recently had the opportunity to join XR Realty  for a podcast conversation that covered a wide range of topics shaping cities today. The discussion moved naturally between development in Chicago, the future of large scale civic projects, and the evolving role of materials and construction methods such as mass timber and componentized housing. It was a thoughtful conversation that reflected how interconnected these topics really are. From my perspective at Forefront Structur

After we shared our reflections on the 3-hour mass timber fire test , I had the opportunity to continue that conversation in a different format. I was recently invited by Neutral  to join their podcast and talk more openly about why the testing mattered, what we learned, and how it’s shaping the way I think about mass timber moving forward. In Episode 19 of the Neutral Podcast , I talk through the motivation behind the test, what it was like to see the assembly perform in rea

June was a busy and rewarding month at Forefront Structural Engineers, marked by meaningful milestones across a wide range of project types and locations. We celebrated the successful completion of a complex adaptive re-use + new hotel in New Orleans. We broke ground (and barriers) on what will become the tallest mass timber tower in the Western Hemisphere, located in Milwaukee, WI. We topped out on a mass timber "missing middle" housing project in Madison, WI. We began work