Our Mass Timber Book is Now Available!

After two years of intensive work, my co-author, Peggi Clouston, and I are thrilled to announce that our new book “Mass Timber – Materials, Design, and Construction“ is officially out! We just received our author copies, and seeing the final product in person is incredibly rewarding. This book serves as both a reference and a […] Read more..

New Book Pre-Order Announcement: ‘Mass Timber – Materials, Design, Construction’

I have some exciting news: Together with Peggi Clouston, I co-authored a reference book on all aspects of mass timber buildings – from the materials through conceptualization and design to construction. If you are interested in developing, designing and constructing mass timber buildings, then you may want to keep an eye on this book. While […] Read more..

X-mas tree 2019

Merry Christmas, Joyful Holidays, and a Happy New Year 2020!

Dear friends and colleagues, I wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas, a peaceful and joyous holiday season and a healthy, happy, and successful new year 2020! Cheers, Alex P.S. Once again my card is a SketchUp model, this time with a wood-block print theme. Rendering was again accomplished in Sketchfab. In case […] 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..

My new book is out! Schreyer authors fourth edition of ‘Fundamentals of Residential Construction’.

UMass Press Release: Alexander Schreyer, director of the building and construction technology (BCT) program, has revised and expanded “Fundamentals of Residential Construction” to produce the fourth edition of the guide to professional construction of single-family and multifamily homes. Schreyer joins Edward Allen, formerly of MIT, Yale University and the University of Oregon, and Robert Thallon […] 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..