Verso is a new $5.0 million multifamily housing complex located in the St. Anthony East neighborhood of northeast Minneapolis. The 25,641-square foot, four-story development contains 29 units with a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom market rate apartments. Four units on the first floor are two-story apartments. Some units feature balconies or rooftop deck space. Also, along with ample space for bicycles is surface parking for 13 vehicles.

Construction consists of wood stud walls and wood floor trusses at the typical floors and structural steel framing, wood floor trusses and masonry walls at the podium over the parking area. Typical podium construction for this type of project consists of precast concrete beam, column and plank podium above the parking areas, but it was determined by the project team a steel beam and wood truss podium would provide a significant cost savings.

A steel beam and wood truss podium had several challenges including the transfer of lateral forces to the first floor shear walls and fire proofing of the floor system at the podium level. The podium level lateral framing system consists of a blocked wood diaphragm with steel beams acting as collectors to efficiently transfer lateral loads to first floor masonry shear walls.