Clouston Archives - Building and Construction Technology

In Memoriam: John W. Olver

March 9, 2023March 7, 2023 by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed

The John W. Olver Design Building - BCT's home on the Amherst campus - is not just another campus building. The beauty and warmth of the timber structure, and its environmental footprint that treads lightly, represents a visionary approach to contemporary building design in that it integrally respects the responsibility we have towards the earth we live on. None of this would have been possible without the support and environmental consciousness of Congressman John Olver, who was the prime reason that the Olver Design Building was built with Mass Timber, the only naturally renewable building material. John attended a presentation by Peggi Clouston in 2014 about Mass Timber which led to several more meetings and ultimately a meeting of the minds where our technical background combined with John’s long term efforts to support forest health, sustainable construction, and rural economies. Our conversations ultimately led to the idea of creating a timber demonstration structure which would support the UMass Amherst climate action plan and...

MoMA Panel Discussion on Mass Timber with Prof. Clouston Now Available

May 20, 2022May 19, 2022 by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed

A presentation and panel discussion on "Material Worlds: Mass Timber" was organized by the Museum of Moden Art in New York on Dec 14, 2021 and included BCT Prof. Peggi Clouston. From the MoMA website: Wood construction is ancient, and surprisingly more relevant than ever before. The United Nations predicts that nearly one Manhattan worth of floor area will be built every two weeks globally over the next 40 years (GlobalABC, IEA, and UNEP 2018). Since the built environment is responsible for almost half of global carbon emissions, it is essential that we redesign what these cities are made of. Mass timber laminates small pieces of wood into scalable structural elements that have strength comparable to concrete and steel, enabling urban density, a key component in a low-carbon way of life. It has the potential to be more renewable and carbon-sequestering than any other structural material in existence. But questions remain. Who has access to healthy building materials like this? Are there enough...

Two NE Tree Species Can Be Used in New Sustainable Building Material

February 28, 2020February 27, 2020 by Peggi Clouston Comment Closed

UMass Amherst study tested strength of mass timber panels created from eastern white pine and eastern hemlock February 27, 2020 Contact: Peggi Clouston AMHERST, Mass. – Two tree species native to the Northeast have been found to be structurally sound for use in cross-laminated timber (CLT) – a revolutionary new type of building material with sought-after sustainability characteristics, according to research by a University of Massachusetts Amherst timber engineer. The findings, published in the Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, suggest that these trees – the eastern hemlock and eastern white pine – could support local markets for CLT. The manufacturing of CLT, a type of mass timber used for wall, floor and roof construction, could create jobs, improve rural and forestry economies and support better forestry management, which is a strategy to address climate change, the research says. “This is the future – prefabricated, panelized wood,” says lead author Peggi Clouston, professor of wood mechanics and timber engineering in the School of Earth and...

Washington Post Article on MassTimber Features the Olver Design Building and BCT’s Research

December 12, 2019 by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed

Today, the Washington Post published an article about the rise of MassTimber buildings (which are predominantly made using glulam and cross-laminated timber). The article featured exemplary projects throughout the country with the John W. Olver Design Building at UMass as a prominent example. BCT's research into Eastern Hemlock CLT is being described in the article through interviews with Prof. Peggi Clouston and Conrado Araujo, a BCT undergrad student who has been involved in this research for the past year. Forget the log cabin. Wood buildings are climbing skyward — with pluses for the planet – Washington Post (12/12/2019)...

BCT Welcomes Students (Back) to UMass for Fall 2019!

September 3, 2019September 2, 2019 by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed

Welcome back to UMass to all our undergrad and grad students! And welcome to all incoming students of the class of 2023! News As we start the new semester, there is some exciting news to share: We are welcoming Fernando Romero to our faculty! Fernando has been the lead project manager on many large construction projects in various countries. Being originally from Brazil, he joins our team after spending several years teaching construction in Illinois at SIUE. He will be teaching the core of our construction management curriculum, including BCT 353, 550, and 494 and will supervise ASC competitions and other student projects. You can learn more about him here. Congratulations to Peggi Clouston and Alex Schreyer on their well-deserved promotions! Dr. Clouston now holds the rank of full Professor and Mr. Schreyer is now Senior Lecturer II. Over summer, BCT students again completed many different internships in the region and we documented several of them on our Instagram feed. Below are some of those...