rare & unusual » douglas fir trusses

Hold up your roof with history, specifically these Douglas fir trusses made from twice-reclaimed material taken from the old Esprit de Corps Corporate headquarters building in San Francisco.

The Esprit headquarters was built in the 1970s using lumber reclaimed from an old saw mill in the Sierra foothills town of Westwood, CA. The town was founded in 1905 by the Red River Lumber Company.

The pioneering project was conceived by Esprit co-founder and environmental activist Doug Tompkins, who used the reclaimed mill structure material in converting the old 900 Minnesota building in San Francisco into the Esprit headquarters. The 900 Minnesota building was originally built as a wine warehouse in 1903. It is now being converted into residential loft units.

This twice-reclaimed material is now looking for a third home. The material was sandblasted in the 1970s as part of the Esprit installation, so they have phenomenal surface texture and patina, which is further enhanced by old bolt holes, nail holes, shear ring imprints and other character acquired over many decades of use in the Sierras and San Francisco.

Made from solid-length, 5” x 8” nominal Douglas fir beams, these trusses are 20’ long and 4’-5” tall. The pitch is approximately 4/12. We have about four dozen of these pieces left.

For pricing and details, call 800-220-9062. For more information on the thousands of board feet of old-growth Doug fir and other material TerraMai recently reclaimed from the 900 Minnesota building, visit www.terramai.com/gallery/sourcing/900MN.php.

For more information on Westwood and the Red River Lumber Company, go to www.citlink.net/~lahontan/redriver.htm.

For more information on Doug Tompkins, go to www.infomat.com/whoswho/dougtompkins.html or en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Tompkins.