Nashville Adopts New Mass Timber Building Standards

Nashville Mayor John Cooper recently signed into law new ruled regulating mass timber construction in Nashville, adopting standards set by the 2021 Edition of the International Building Code (IBC) and the 2021 Edition of the International Fire Code (IFC). California enacted the same codes in July 2022.

Before the new regulations, Nashville allowed for a maximum building height of six stories for mass timber developments. The new standards “will allow certain subtypes of mass timber developments a maximum height of 18 stories,” according to an August 8 press release published by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.

Nashville already has a number of large mass timber buildings complete or under construction, including an 18,500 square-foot, two-story office building for The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee; the 122,000 square-foot, five-story office building by Panattoni Development Company on Music Row; and the city’s largest mass timber building so far, a 200,000 square-foot Class A office space called Nashville Warehouse Co., completed by AJ Capital Partners in August 2021.

An article by Ryan Gandolfo for Capital Analytics Associates, published in November 2022, describes why Nashville is making space for mass timber.