Impossible, you say? The Barrow Street Building in Anchorage, Alaska, is just such a building and demonstrates what can be done with some wood and nails. It's not quite as simple as that, but close. The grade-level story actually is an above-grade basement with masonry walls, and the first-floor and mezzanine levels use 2x8 studs. The floor joists are all 2x10, though spacing varies at 12, 16 or 24 inches o.c. Designed and built by the architectural firm of Lane Knorr Plunkett with engineering assistance from SCHR-Barkshire, Inc., the building was completed in October 1982 at a cost of $67 a square foot. The firm chose wood for the structure because steel and masonry couldn't meet
