It’s Tall, But That’s Not All: Josh Dortzbach Talks 9th & High with Informed Infrastructure

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Forefront Principal Josh Dortzbach recently joined Informed Infrastructure for a conversation about 9th & High, the mass timber student housing project currently rising near The Ohio State University in Columbus. Read the full article on their website.

The conversation became the basis for the magazine’s feature, It’s Tall, But That’s Not All: A Consequential 158 Feet of Mass Timber in Columbus, Ohio, which looks at what makes the project significant beyond its height.

At 158 feet, 9th & High is pushing mass timber into territory that would have been unusual for student housing only a few years ago. But as Josh discussed during the interview, height is only one part of the story. The project demonstrates how mass timber can compete as a practical structural system for larger residential buildings when design, fabrication, and construction are considered together from the beginning.

One of the most visible advantages has been construction speed. The mass timber structure is progressing rapidly, with the erection team moving through approximately two floors every two weeks. Much of that efficiency comes from the nature of the system itself. Timber components arrive on site prefabricated and ready for installation, allowing the structure to be assembled with a relatively small crew and significantly reducing the amount of work required in the field.

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That speed does not happen automatically. It relies on extensive coordination before the material ever arrives on site. Connections, penetrations, tolerances, erection sequencing, and interfaces between structural systems all need to be resolved early. The more decisions that can be made during design and fabrication, the fewer decisions need to be made from a lift or scaffold during construction.

9th & High is also an example of how mass timber projects increasingly rely on hybrid structural thinking. Rather than treating timber as the answer to every structural problem, the design uses different materials where each performs most effectively. The result is a system developed around the needs of the building rather than around a single material.

For Forefront, that approach is central to how we think about mass timber. The goal is not simply to build taller with wood. It is to understand where timber creates meaningful advantages in constructability, sustainability, architectural expression, and overall building performance, and then develop a structural system that allows those advantages to be realized.

Projects like 9th & High are helping move that conversation forward. Every successful project at this scale gives owners, architects, contractors, fabricators, and engineers more information about what is possible and helps establish mass timber as another viable tool for larger and more complex buildings.

We appreciate Angus Stocking and Informed Infrastructure taking the time to speak with Josh and explore not only how tall 9th & High is becoming, but why the project could have a much broader impact on the future of mass timber construction

Developer: Harbor Bay

Architect: DLR Group

Contractor: Elford Inc.