Joe Mayo is an architect in Seattle at Mahlum and author of Solid Wood: Mass Timber Architecture, Technology and Design, the first English language book devoted solely to mass timber commercial buildings.

He’s worked on a variety of mass timber projects including classroom buildings, a childcare facility, structures on university campuses, cultural centers, and federally funded grants to develop mass timber design prototypes.

Joe has been an active advocate of mass timber for well over a decade. He worked with the City of Seattle Department of Planning and Development to create a city-wide CLT taskforce. He has worked with AIA WA Council and non-profit Forterra, who together were successful in changing the Washington State Building Code to allow greater use of mass timber. He advocates for wood use to lower embodied carbon impacts and to harness biophilic properties to make our buildings places that inspire human connection and creativity.