Internships: Residential Design, from Conception to Completion.
Student: John LaBreck
Faculty Sponsor: Peggi Clouston
Project Type: Independent Study
Year: 2005
Introduction:
During my 2005 winter session brake from college I looked to further my education in a somewhat different way. I was looking for hands-on experience in the field of Residential Construction rather than more coursework. I felt strongly that some on-site experience in the field would be a great asset for my resume and for my upcoming career. I have owned a residential design business for the past three years and wanted some more experience within the other areas of the field. Developing the construction drawings was a start but I wanted to tie it all together. Some of the areas I wished to work more closely within included: framing, estimating, on-site and off-site leadership, etc. I was given the opportunity to work for a residential builder that I had just recently done a set of construction drawings for and the project he happened...
Students: Charles Bado, Kevin Donahue, Ted Forgit, Tom Krajewski, Anna Novey, Matt Peterson, Chris Phelps
Faculty Sponsor: Peggi Clouston, BMATWT, NRC
Project Type: Independent Study
Year: 2003
Introduction:
The purpose of this project was to conceptually design, construct and non-destructively test a full-size pedestrian timber bridge. The guidelines for construction are those set out by the National Timber Bridge Design Competition which is an annual event sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the United States Forest Products Service.
The competition is open to universities across the US and Canada for student chapters of the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) as well as the Forest Products Society (FPS).
Aim of Project:
The aim of the project was to construct a fully functional bridge (treated to AWPA standards for "above ground use") which has:
Minimal overall bridge deflection
Minimal deck deflection
Minimal weight
A maximum of 25% non-wood content by weight
The bridge was designed and built with the intent that it would be used in a local trail or...
Students: Various from BMATWT 497C plus students from Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning (LARP) as well as Architecture+Design (A+D)
Faculty Sponsor: Alexander Schreyer
Project Type: Class & extracurricular
Year: 2007-2010
A group of students from the UMass programs of Building Materials and Wood Technology (BMATWT), Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning (LARP) as well as Architecture+Design (A+D) under the supervision of Alexander Schreyer, Faculty member in Building Materials and Wood Technology and Architecture+Design, have created a 3-dimensional model of almost all buildings on the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts. In total, approximately 100 buildings were modeled in Google SketchUp, a freely available 3-dimensional CAD (Computer-Aided Design) software and then exported to Google Earth, a free GIS-based (Geographic Information System) terrain-viewer. The campus buildings will be available in Google Earth through the “3D Buildings” layer later this summer. This 3D-model can be used for visualization of new campus planning, visitor orientation, “dorm previews” for incoming students and much more.The process of creating the digital models involved first the drawing of...
Amherst, March 29, 2007
Two Building Materials & Wood Technology students do their part to green America. In a time where filling stations charge anything between $2.00 and $3.50 per gallon of gasoline, brothers David and Richard Posluszny pay 28 cents per gallon for fuel. This is accomplished by clarifying and using recycled vegetable oil from restaurants for their personal transportation (an old Mercedes Benz).
As of now, their story has been featured in the Boston Globe and on the Hallmark Television channel. See their method in the video below or simply visit their website to learn more.
Links:
Website: http://www.thegreasybrothers.com/
BMATWT students' greasy endeavor makes it into the Globe. (2/27/2007) (PDF)...
Student: John W. Michalski (M.S. stud.)
Faculty Supervisor: Alexander Schreyer
Project Type: Independent Study
Year: 2005
Description:
In 2005, the university launched a new NAAB accredited Architecture+Design program in the Department of Art & Art History. To promote the program and the newly offered M.Arch., a new website was created. Like any departmental website, this one featured faculty pages.
To complement the faculty office room number information (e.g. "Holdsworth 127") visually, transparent 3-dimensional models of the respective buildings were created in which the office was shown as a red box.
The 3D-CAD software SketchUp was chosen for this task, since it allows for an intuitive creation of 3D geometry and provides the required visualization capability. All buildings were modeled rather coarse with floor slabs and walls only. Then all components were assigned a transparent material. Finally, the different views were exported as JPGs.
Documents:
The images can be seen on the Architecture+Design website on the faculty pages. The following are some samples:...
