If you’re designing a mass timber school in Michigan, the approvals process has recently become more straightforward. The State has updated an old statute—Act 306 of 1937—that some building code officials had interpreted as in conflict with the Michigan Building Code (MBC) when it comes to mass timber in schools. The old version of the code specified only the use of “fire resisting materials”—including steel and concrete, but not wood—for school construction. Michigan enacted the out-of-date statute at a time before the commercialization of mass timber materials like cross-laminated timber and glulam, which research has since proven have excellent fire resistance properties. Nevertheless, the statute—not consistent with MBC—created red tape in the approvals process for at least one Michigan school in recent years. Seeing the need to resolve this inconsistency, the Michigan Legislature passed House Bill 4603, which amends Act.