Risk is no stranger to the Ukraine-born developers of the 284-ft-tall Ascent residential project—on deck to take mass-timber construction to record heights. In December 1989, when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union, Boris Gokhman and his son, Tim, then 10 years old, pretended they were going to Israel but instead fled to the U.S. The daring journey toward a better life in the “new land” was rife with uncertainties, unknowns and the unfamiliar.
“Anti-Semitism is one of the main reasons we left,” says Tim Gokhman, managing director of New Land Enterprises, which is developing the 25-story Ascent, despite the risks associated with the first use of the green building material in a U.S. tower. “My father was an engineer but he knew that, mainly because he was Jewish, his prospects were limited regardless of his ability,” explains Gokhman, whose father declined to be interviewed.
在在维也纳获得美国政治庇护并在意大利停留后，父亲和儿子于1990年3月8日降落在密尔沃基。鲍里斯选择了这座城市，因为他的新土地联合创始人的商业伙伴沃尔特·舒克（Walter Shuk）最近在那里定居。
Perhaps the most unnerving part of the Gokhman immigration scheme was that they had to leave Tim’s mother Raisa behind in Donetsk. “The Soviet Union had a practice of splitting family visas,” says Gokhman. She managed to join them that fall.
这些早期的经历对Gokhman的唯一孩子产生了深远而持久的影响。具体而言，跋涉给了他很高的风险容忍度。他说：“大挑战不是我的阶段。”
“In a business deal, what’s the grand consequence” of failure? Gokhman asks. “You are not going to prison or going to go hungry.”
上升体现了业务风险。在美国，没有任何开发，金融，保险，设计，批准，许可，细节，材料采购，制造和建造木材框架的先例代码。这并没有阻止Gokhmans的建筑表达的想法，因为伍德固有的美丽及其作为一种隔离碳的材料而被建筑表达的高木材作为市场差异化。
Still, becoming a tall-timber role model wasn’t easy. “Had we known all the challenges in advance, we probably wouldn’t have started” the project, says Gokhman.
到达密尔沃基后，鲍里斯·戈曼（Boris Gokhman）加入了舒克（Shuk），每小时以4.15美元的价格绘画房屋。很快，他们开始了一家房屋制作业务。然后，他们开始涉足房地产。1993年，他们形成了新土地。Gokhman说：“看到父亲在没有金钱和语言的情况下取得的成就使大多数其他事物都看上去。”
最终，鲍里斯·戈克曼（Boris Gokhman）开始创新。他是密尔沃基第一个在住宅高层中使用轻型钢框架的人，也是第一个使用水力辐射层加热的人。
蒂姆（Tim）在大学毕业后不久于2002年加入了新土地。尽管他的父亲活跃于工作地点，但蒂姆在十年前成为新土地的面孔。Korb + Associates Architects的主要建筑师Jason Korb说，Gokhmans是“大胆的”，该建筑师与结构工程师Thornton Tomasetti一起设计了混合木材和混凝土项目。
New Land also was the first to develop a micro-unit residential building. “The Gokhmans are always finding a niche or filling a hole in the marketplace,” says Adam M. Arndt, president of Catalyst Construction, which is responsible for Ascent’s fit-out.
高层建筑将在六层楼的结构混凝土停车领奖台上有19个住宅层，该楼将于2022年7月1日完成。直到春季，预计不会在现场进行木材。尽管如此，新土地和密尔沃基（Milwaukee）（其开发人员友好的批准流程）可能已经清除了美国其他高木塔的道路
