Structural glulam has a long history of development in North America and Europe. As the ancestor of modern engineered wood products, it has developed from a product produced in a workshop style to an important role in the field of construction engineering in the world today.
The first person to patent a glulam structure was Otto Karl Friedrich Hetzer (1846-1911) from Weimar, Germany. He applied for and obtained patents in Switzerland and Germany in 1900. Hertz's patent for curved glulam components registered in Germany in 1906 (registered patent number #197773) marked the real beginning of the application of glulam in arched structures.
In North America, the earliest application of structural glulam technology was around 1934, when Max Hanisch, a registered architect and engineer, designed a school and community gymnasium in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. The "all-glued" wood structure vaulted roof structure became the first building in American history to use a glulam structure. Heinnech designed the gymnasium in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, using triangular arches with a span of 19.7m, using southern pine as the tree species and casein glue as the adhesive. Manufactured by United Structures. 1934. The USDA Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) constructed its display building in Madison to conduct trials of 14.2m structural glued arches produced by United Structures, and the results greatly exceeded expectations.
The assembly hall of St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in Hofa Park, Wisconsin, was built in 1935 and used Gothic arches built with Southern pine. In addition, Heinnesch designed St. Leonard's Catholic Church in Laona, Wisconsin, Minnesota architect Nairne W. Fisher designed St. Martin's Catholic Church, and Pennsylvania architect G. W. Sticle designed ) Glulam structures were used in the design of the assembly hall of Sharmokin Church.
In 1940, the United Structural Company used two 24m span glued arches for the Jennifer Pedestrian Bridge over the Yahara River in Wisconsin. Northwest Airlines built a splicer hangar in Fargo, North Dakota, with an arch spacing of 3m and a span of 46.8m. In 1942 in St. Paul, Minnesota, two 185-meter-long hangars were constructed of glulam with a span of 52.7 meters. The Jai Alai Fronton Stadium in West Palm Beach, Florida uses butt-jointed glued arches with a span of 75.3m. In the 1950s, the amphitheater at Montana State College had an arch span of 91.5m. In 1962, the Alumni Stadium at State College in Richmond, Kentucky had a span of 94m, and the main arch section size was 457x2160mm at its maximum. In the 1970s, the "elevated platform" located in the New Mexico desert used by the U.S. military to test the effects of electromagnetic pulses on aircraft used 6.5 million board feet of structural glulam.
Structural glulam was used in the three main venues of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lilahammer, Norway. The "pirate ship" type stadium in Hamar is based on the design of the pirate ship of the Viking era, using structural glulam arch trusses with a span of 96.4m.