The object of the present study is to present an adaptive wavelet-Galerkin method for the analysis of thin-walled box beam. Due to good localization properties of wavelets, wavelet methods emerge as alternative efficient solution methods to finite element methods. Most structural applications of wavelets thus far are limited in fixed-scale, non-adaptive frameworks, but this is not an appropriate use of wavelets. On the other hand, the present work appears the first attempt of an adaptive wavelet-based Galerkin method in structural problems. To handle boundary conditions, a fictitous domain method with penalty terms is employed. The limitation of the fictitious domain method is also addressed.