Critical-path erection is complete at Homemakers Furniture’s new showroom in Tiffin, Iowa. On October 22, our site team reached the milestone after 102 days on site, including glulam members, dowel-laminated timber panels and HSS steel columns.
The 220,000-square-foot, two-storey showroom is part of the Park Place development along the I-380 corridor. Its exposed timber structure gives the large retail floor a warm, consistent ceiling, while a gabled, double-height atrium opens up the centre of the building.
A regular grid and an open atrium
Across the showroom, glulam beams and hollow steel columns form 40-by-40-foot bays. Glulam purlins sit flush within the main framing, supporting DLT floor and roof panels above. The repeated bays provide open space for furniture displays and a regular system of members and panels to detail, fabricate and erect.
The repeated timber-and-steel bays leave the structure visible above the showroom floor.
At the entrance and central atrium, the span doubles. Eighty-foot hybrid trusses combine glulam upper chords with slender steel tension rods, carrying the gabled roof over the double-height space. Large skylight openings between the trusses bring daylight into the centre of the showroom.
Hybrid trusses span the double-height atrium, with daylight entering through the gabled roof openings.
The gabled entrance and atrium framing, with the site team below.
Connecting the drawings to the site
StructureCraft’s work brought structural engineering, fabrication modelling, supply and erection into one scope. The team designed the glulam, DLT, hybrid trusses and timber-to-steel connections, supplied and installed the timber and truss components, and erected steel columns supplied by the project’s local steel fabricator.
That coordination continued during installation. Our engineering team worked through field adjustments with the site crew, while the geometry team provided the models and shop data needed to fit the timber and steel together. Alex and Joseph Simpson led the site work, with Brendan Devane supporting the field team.
Members of the StructureCraft site team at Homemakers.
A full-height view through the gabled entrance and central atrium.
Explore the Homemakers Furniture project.
Photography: StructureCraft project team.
