Advocating for Widespread Adoption of Mass Timber in Construction

This Women’s History Month, in celebration of female leaders in the multifamily industry, Multi-Housing News is sharing the voice of several women with stand-out achievements in their field.

Erica Spiritos’ professional successes exuberate a truly altruistic spirit—early on, she spent her time and energy on activities like researching opportunities to include innovation for remote communities, designing household-scale desalination systems for families in the Gaza Strip and leading groups of high school students on service learning and wilderness trips in Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colorado and India.

Since 2015, she set her focus on urban construction using sustainable structural materials. Now, Spiritos is a preconstruction manager at Swinerton-affiliate Timberlab, having built her way up by working on notable developments such as the Portland International Terminal Core and Roof Replacement project. The massive 400,000-square-foot project pushes the boundaries of mass timber construction.

Currently, she is part of the team behind The Ascent, a 284-foot residential tower in Milwaukee which holds the title of the tallest timber tower in North America. The building rises 25 stories high, 19 of which feature exposed timber columns, beams and ceilings.