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The Beauty of Glulam Beams DR Johnson is known to provide custom, quality, and beautiful glu-laminated beams. Exposed structural glu-laminated timber provides structures with a warmth and beauty that does not compare with other building materials. What is a glulam? Glulam is glued laminated timbers pressed together to create a single structural beam or column. DR Johnson's glulam's are made completely custom from locally sourced Douglas Fir. DRJ offers four different appearance grades; industrial, architectural, premium, and framing grades. Because we offer such a wide variety of beam options, we make it easy to place glulam orders with us by email, phone, or the contact form on our website! Our

The Sideyard project in Portland Oregon was recognized by Archidust, as a strengthening connection between the Eastside community and the westside downtown urban core. This unique 9,000 sf space was created when the City of Portland built a new one-way street which reconnected the roadway to the Burnside bridge. The building was designed to fit on a unique urban property as a working-class building, targeting public transportation connectivity. The small lot and busy urban traffic, created a more challenging design and construction. DRJ Cross-Laminated Timber and Glu-lam beams served as the buildings main structural components. Click here to see more about this beautiful & sustainable structure.

There are many construction benefits to Mass Timber Buildings: Mass Timber buildings can be up to 30% lighter than steel and concrete structures. With mass timber buildings, comes smaller foundation requirements and lower forces for seismic resistance. Buildings built with mass timber can be erected up to 25% faster with less waste and job site traffic than steel or concrete buildings. Cross-Laminated Timber and Glu-Laminated Timber building are fire safe with 2-hour or greater fire ratings! Wood members can be used to protect steel components and connectors, increasing fire safety. The strength of wood members see less decline when exposed to fire than steel, and failure of a member is

Mass Timber materials are safe, sustainable, efficient, and an innovative method of construction. Wood is the only major construction material that is renewable, sustainable, and creates a net positive effect on the environment. By utilizing Mass Timber, wood industries promote sustainable forest management and harvesting practices. Through the Oregon Forest Practices Act, Oregon has strong laws and policies in place to promote healthy and growing forests. The Oregon FPA sets policies including limits on clear cutting practices, protection of streams and water resources, and requires harvested areas to be replants within two-years of a timber harvest. These policies help ensure that Oregon Mass Timber products remain sustainable and contribute to

How is Cross-laminated Timber Manufactured?   Cross-Laminated Timber is created by stacking lumber in alternating directions, and being pressed together with strong adhesives to form a strong panel. These panels can be formed into 3-ply, 5-ply, or 7-ply, depending on the project's needs.    The details of cross-laminated timber manufacturing vary from manufacturer to manufacturer but generally follow the process below.     Lumber is selected for use within the CLT panel. The lumber is visually or mechanically graded and moisture content is checked. Moisture content must be 12% +/- 3%     Group lumber by grade     Plane lumber to appropriate thickness     Finger-joint and cut individual

As the First Certified Manufacturer of Cross-Laminated Timber in the United States, we are very proud to be apart of the Mass Timber Movement! Cross-Laminated Timber was first developed in Australia in the early 1900's, designed to create a more sustainable form of construction for residential construction. DR Johnson started producing Cross-Laminated Timber in 2015, and now, CLT is the most familiar and widely-used Mass Timber product in the U.S. In order for a construction project to be classified as a "Mass Timber Project," the load-bearing structure would be constructed with the use of Mass Timber. Most applications that use Cross-Laminated Timber are office buildings, hotels, multi-use buildings, public &

District Office is a large mass timber project designed by Hacker Architects, to create a fresh & flexible retail, office, and restaurant space in downtown Portland. The 90,000 sf, six-story building, is known for it's exposed mass timber that consists of DR Johnson cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glu-laminated beams/columns. The CLT panels throughout the structure consisted of 3-ply panels, and the glulam spans ranged form 30 to 40 feet. One of the main objectives architecturally, was to fully expose the wood structure. This required strategical design thinking to ensure that the building's design was aesthetically thoughtful, as well as structurally sound. As the demand for mass timber grows and expands

How Strong is Cross Laminated Timber?    DR Johnson Wood Innovations is committed to providing safe structural mass timber products for projects of all sizes. Cross-Laminated Timber is a large-scale, prefabricated, solid engineered wood panel that is lightweight, yet very strong, with superior acoustic, fire, seismic, and thermal performance. Product testing has been done to ensure that all panels are safe and structurally sound for any project.    DRJ Wood Innovations was invited to collaborate on a Bi-National Wood Industry Advisory Committee on a research proposal titled: Development & Validation of a Resilience-Based Seismic Design Methodology for Tall Wood Buildings. DRJ panels were used as the structural elements for the

DR Johnson Wood Innovations was the first to become a certified manufacture of cross-laminated timber in the United States. In 2014, DRJ initially got involved with CLT after Oregon State University officials reached out in regards to Europe's use of cross-laminated timber. DRJ was a top candidate for OSU's project because of the years experience of producing of glu-laminated beams. Check out the article, to learn more about DR Johnson's history and how they became the forefront of the CLT movement. Click here to read more.

According to world-architects.com, one of our very own projects, Sideyard, was selected as the U.S. Building of the Week! This beautiful cross-laminated timber building is located in the heart of downtown Portland, Oregon. DR Johnson CLT and glu-laminated beams served as the building's main structure components, with the ground floor serving as store fronts, and the above floors serving as work spaces. Sideyard was designed to fit in a small 9,000 sf urban remnant property, as a working class building. For more on this article, click here.