What’s new in Autodesk Revit 2013?

As always, one of the best resources for new Revit product descriptions in David Light’s blog. Here is the link to his post on Revit 2013: Revit: What’s new in Autodesk Revit 2013? I am mostly looking forward to: A single Revit installation (should make teaching much easier) Better IFC support (every CAD/BIM software needs […] Read more..

How tall can we build in wood?

Recent news about a report published by the Canadian architect Michael Green “Tall Wood – The Case for Tall Wood Buildings” (which was funded by the Canadian Wood Council and co-authored by Equilibrium Consulting, LMDG and BTY Group) is currently accelerating interest in the possibility of using wood, a naturally renewable material, to replace concrete and steel […] Read more..

2012 BC Wood Design Awards

Here’s another inspirational round of amazing wood structures. A few days ago, the 8th annual Wood WORKS! BC Wood Design Awards were given out in various categories including Commercial, Residential, Multi-Unit Residential, Western Red cedar, Green Building, Interior Beauty, Engineering and Architecture and more. Congratulations also to architect Jim Taggart, FRAIC for receiving the  BC Premier’s Wood Champion Award! Links: Wood WORKS! BC presents 2012 Wood Design Awards […] Read more..

Barns in the Pioneer Valley

Last Friday I had the pleasure to be invited to a barn tour organized by two of my Architecture colleagues – Max Page and Caryn Brause. As anyone who lives in the Pioneer Valley (the Connecticut River valley) knows, one of the truly vernacular building styles around here is the tobacco barn. This trip showed […] Read more..

Multifamily CLT-Building Completed in Quebec

I just received this great assembly video for what Nordic (the manufacturer of the CLT panels) calls the “first multi-family residence in North America built exclusively using CLT panels”. In their own words: Nordic Structures completes the first multi-family residence in North America built exclusively using CLT panels.  Featuring Nordic X=Lam panels, the walls, floors, […] Read more..

Finding Our Favorite Places

A university of 27,000 students and several thousand more faculty and employees is a very complex environment whose spaces and places are experienced differently by different audiences.
This project sought to request feedback from students, faculty, employees and visitors to UMass about their favorite places on campus. This was done by providing a website that allowed to crowdsource feedback by letting users place a pin at their favorite locations and submit a comment.

APA Publishes Advanced Framing Construction Guide

APA just released a free publication on advanced framing techniques full of information and construction details. From their description: Advanced framing – also known as optimum value engineering (OVE) – was developed by the NAHB Research Center, an independent subsidiary of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), in the 1970s for the purpose of […] Read more..