Dragan,
>>I've seen a building back home which was built entirely of such beams 25 years ago - and it's still in better shape than many younger buildings.
Glue-laminated beams and trusses are extremely strong... but will they last centuries? We don't know yet.
I'm a great believer in good old steel! A decent i-beam carries unbelievable loads and lasts effectively forever. Somebody "modernized" my home in NZ in the 1920s, using steel beams to support a new art-deco-heavyweight external brick staircase and entryway. In 2005 those beams continue to support tons of brickwork without a murmur and can be expected to do so indefinitely.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
