Fundamentals of Residential Construction, 5th Edition is Here!

I am very happy to announce that after a full year of editing, writing, photographing, reviewing, proof-reading, and then proof-reading again, the new edition of Fundamentals of Residential Construction by Allen/Schreyer/Thallon is now available! As before, it comes in an eBook version as well as a hardcover. For this edition, I was able to implement […] Read more..

Discussing MassTimber and the Olver Design Building on MassConstruction’s Podcast

Joseph Kelly of MassConstruction.org visited our BCT program at UMass a few weeks ago for a tour of the Olver Design Building, our award-winning home at UMass. He also brought along his microphone and taped a two-part podcast with Peggi Clouston and me about the Design Building and the current wave of new MassTimber buildings. You […] Read more..

How much abuse can Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) take?

Being about a month away from moving my office into a Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) building, I am of course interested in answers to this question. As it turns out, many recent research projects proved that CLT can evidently handle quite a bit of abuse (beyond regular day-to-day loading and use)! I may be biased, but […] Read more..

Opening of T3 building continues recent mass timber building trend: Six examples

Today’s opening of the T3 building in Minneapolis marks a spectacular milestone: The construction of the tallest contemporary heavy-timber building in the US so far! I am saying “so far” because as this trend continues, it will surely by surpassed in height very soon. Completion of the T3 building continues a recent trend of larger, […] Read more..

Merry Christmas, Joyful Holidays, and a Happy New Year 2016!

For this year’s Christmas post, I went back to a simple rendering approach. Mixing some extruded shapes, eroded boxes, basic materials and a few lights makes for a nice, moody image. As always, all done in SketchUp (and Twilight). To you and your loved ones a peaceful and joyful holiday season and a happy and successful […] Read more..

Building a Wood-Concrete Composite Bench with CLTs

Some of my students recently finished building a “severely overdesigned” wood-concrete composite bench that serves as a mockup for the floor system in our new building at UMass. You can read all about it (and check out the photo gallery) here: http://bct.eco.umass.edu/news/building-a-wood-concrete-floor-mockup-bench/

Merry Christmas, Joyful Holidays, and a Happy New Year 2015!

As every year, let’s celebrate the season with a bit of digital “bling”! This time, it’s just a simple SketchUp model of a fractal tree that I enhanced a bit in Sketchfab’s editor. Yes, it is WebGL and you are allowed to play with it. Have fun! To you and your loved ones a peaceful […] Read more..