Our Story
The timber team with 200+ years of combined experience
Four decades of timber science, a team licensed across three countries, and one conviction: the structures others give up on are worth saving.
Our Story
Designing the future by reviving the past
Inspired by his passion for all things timber, our founder, Senior Engineer, and Wood Technologist, Dr. Daniel A. Tingley, founded the Wood Science and Technology Institute in 1984.
Since then, the name has changed, the team has grown, our reach has expanded, and our services have evolved. Wood Research and Development (WRD) now has offices in the United States, Canada, and Australia, though our clients and projects span the globe.
Through every stage, Dan’s focus has remained the same: educating structure owners, local governments, preservation groups, and private clients, both about their specific projects and about the benefits of preserving heritage structures.
Dr. Tingley’s engineering staff is second to none in wooden-structure design and preservation. Dr. Tingley personally holds 40+ patents in timber reinforcement and evaluation, and our team has restored many projects (including Wingspread, a Frank Lloyd Wright creation) that other engineers thought impossible or too costly to save.
Since 1984, Dr. Daniel A. Tingley & the WRD team
Our Mission
To promote the superior advantages of timber infrastructure through education, design, and engineering
Our Vision
To secure a sustainable future by making mass timber the global infrastructure choice
Corporate Values · The TIMBERS Way
How we approach the work
A method for approaching our work, our relationships with one another and our clients, and our daily lives.
T
Teamwork do what it takes to move forward as one.
I
Innovation strive to improve while pursuing new ideas.
M
Mindfulness act with purposeful awareness of the impact of our actions.
B
Belonging create a community committed to supporting each other to be their best.
E
Embracing Safety work with safety as the top priority.
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Respect welcome all input and treat everyone with civility.
S
Sustainability build a better future in a responsible and meaningful way.
Accredited & Certified
Your timber structure can be trusted, and so can we
WRD maintains rigorous standards for safety, innovation, and excellence: so we can be the engineering consultants you trust to repair, restore, or design timber structures that last for generations.
ALSC-approved
Approved by the American Lumber Standard Committee for grading and standards work.
Skilled crews
Our crews are made up of skilled engineers and Level II Advanced Timber Technicians.
IAS-accredited lab
ISO 17020 (inspection) and ISO 17025 (testing), accredited by IAS for 30+ years.
NOVA & Pankow awards
Dr. Dan Tingley is the only person to win the NOVA (1997) and Charles Pankow (1996) awards back-to-back, and the only one to win both in wood and in high-strength fibers.
200+ publications
Peer-reviewed research advancing timber evaluation and repair.
200+ years’ experience
Combined team experience across our engineers and technicians.
500+ projects
Timber projects completed for government, corporate, and private clients.
55+ countries
Countries around the world where WRD has delivered timber expertise.
Engineering With Values You Share
A commitment that outlasts the project
Ecology pledge
With every inspection and design, WRD prioritizes our planet.
- Our projects are carbon-conscious, we work to offset more carbon than we emit.
- Our mass timber is sourced sustainably, from foresters who replant more than they harvest.
- We recycle what we can, incorporating repurposed timbers into our designs.
Built to last
Engineered for the long term.
- New designs: engineered to last a century, against an average concrete-bridge lifespan of just 50 to 70 years.
- Restoration: the projects we restore at least double their life expectancy, regaining structural integrity to stand for another generation.