Milwaukee is home to the world's tallest timber hybrid building. Here's why developers see it as a model for the future.

Sitting atop the Yankee Hill neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is Ascent, a 284-foot luxury apartment building made mostly of wood. The first of its kind, Ascent is also the tallest timber-concrete hybrid building in the world.

Tim Gokhman, one of the developers of Ascent, says building costs are comparable to more traditional structures, but he found that building with wood has advantages over steel and concrete.

"Concrete is imprecise, it's labor intensive, and it has a heavy carbon footprint," Gokhman said. "Steel has advantages. It can span much better than concrete and mass timber, but it's even heavier, and it has the heaviest carbon footprint."