Ben Weil Releases Holdsworth Hall Retrofit and Renovation Report for Energy Efficiency

by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed
Proposed Holdsworth Hall Retrofit and Renovation would reduce energy usage by 63% and carbon dioxide emissions by 82% The recommendations in this report are the product of a detailed and careful examination and exploration of the building and its operations. Begun as a project in a graduate course taught by Ben Weil, Extension Assistant Professor in Building Energy, the final report was further developed and refined by Weil, and two graduate students in Building Systems, Carl Fiocchi, and Katherine McCusker. The key findings are: (1) very significant energy savings can be achieved at moderate cost, without affecting the basic architectural design, and (2) the building is a complex system, and no change can be considered in isolation. Single measures may achieve savings, but cannot maximize savings or performance without complementary changes in related systems. A final package of recommended measures, reducing the energy consumptions of Holdsworth by 63%, will define a new building system with emergent properties that make for a qualitatively different and...
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BCT Students Model Amherst College in 3D

by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed
BCT Students in the BCT 420 and ECO 697SB classes just finished modeling 30+ buildings at Amherst College in 3D. Once approved by Google, those will appear in the official "3D Buildings" layer in Google Earth. Follow the link below to watch a video or download the KMZ file for Google Earth: http://blogs.umass.edu/bct420-schreyer/student-work/amherst-college-in-3d...
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Recent BCT graduate creates permaculture garden at UMass

Recent BCT graduate creates permaculture garden at UMass

by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is taking another groundbreaking step toward reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and combating global climate change by implementing one of the first permaculture gardens on a public university campus in the country. The scope of this project is considerable; UMass students are responsible for transforming a conventional ¼ acre grass landscape into a highly productive and low maintenance garden using no fossil fuels on-site. This involves layering over 150,000 pounds of organic matter by hand during October and November 2010. UMass Amherst Auxiliary Services fully supports and funds this project as it is part of the campus-wide Sustainability Initiative. Ryan Harb, a certified permaculture designer, has been hired as the Auxiliary Services Sustainability Specialist to design and implement the UMass Permaculture Garden with help from eight passionate and hardworking undergraduate students. Auxiliary Services will feed UMass students with the garden’s fresh, local, not-yet-certified organic produce. Ryan Harb, a certified permaculture designer and LEED Accredited Professional, received his...
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A Student with Building and Construction Technology wins prize in UMass Innovation Challenge

by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed
Tracie Reed, a Masters of Architecture student at UMass was awarded one of two second prizes in the UMass Innovation Challenge for "Turf Builder", a web-based election canvassing tool. This prize carried a financial award of $1,000. Tracie has attended many BCT classes and her faculty sponsor for this competition was Alexander Schreyer, Lecturer in NRC. Each team in the executive summary competition conceives an innovative product or service based on technology created on campus, then produces a five-page executive summary for its commercialization. All the executive summaries were reviewed by the judges before the competition to help determine the overall scores in the contest. On the night of the competition, each team leader presented a two-minute presentation, or elevator pitch, to the judges, who then grilled the team about its concept. Judges dished out more than $10,000 in prize money and other incentives Dec. 8 to six clever, timely and promising ventures conceived by students, faculty and alumni as part of...
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