Gary, putting my engineer's hat on: as you say the bottom is well braced. The top near the trusses is well braced. But if you slice that building horizontally just above the side walls, the only thing resisting wind shear is the bending of the vertical laminated columns. Wood is much better in tension or compression (as in diagonal bracing) than it is in bending. Maybe an engineer has done some numbers for this building but to my eye it looks like it needs diagonal bracing spanning the unbraced area from the side walls up to the truss area. |