A glulam post-and-beam frame is elegant at carrying gravity loads and honest about what it does not do: resist lateral loads on its own. On a set of barn projects the answer was 44 prefabricated shear walls, engineered laminated-veneer panels with defined values and pre-installed hardware, delivered with the frame.
Because the seismic load was large, the shear walls were stacked back to back, and the glulam girders were pre-drilled in the shop to receive the anchors exactly. The crew bolts; it does not improvise.
For mountain sites with real snow and seismic loads, pairing an exposed timber frame with engineered shear elements is often the cleanest way to keep the timber visible and the engineer comfortable.
With the frame standing and braced, the job turns to closing the shell. That is the next series.
Adapted with permission from a note by our colleagues at Red Falls Timber Co.
