Alexander C. Schreyer
Senior Lecturer II
Department Head (Interim) – Environmental Conservation
Program Director – Building and Construction Technology
Director – Trimble Technology Lab @ UMass Amherst
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Primary Interests
- 3D CAD and BIM applications in architecture and construction
- Digital fabrication, 3D printing
- Wood-concrete composite structural systems
- Fasteners and connection systems for wood structures
- Structural upgrading of historic buildings
- Structural optimization and artificial intelligence
- Web applications for research and teaching
Bio Sketch
Alexander C. Schreyer is Senior Lecturer II, Interim Department Head of Environmental Conservation (ECO), and Program Director of Building and Construction Technology (BCT) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In his leadership roles, he oversees a large department with responsibilities spanning strategic and academic planning, personnel, facilities, and resource stewardship. As BCT Program Director he has shaped the program's growth since 2013 through innovative curriculum development, industry partnerships, and a sustained focus on student success.
A key contributor to UMass Amherst's $52 million John W. Olver Design Building — a landmark mass timber facility integrating research, teaching, and practice across three colleges — Schreyer also established Trimble's first worldwide Technology Lab on campus, a gifted space advancing digital building and geospatial education.
His expertise bridges structural engineering, wood science, and digital design technologies, with particular depth in mass timber structural systems, building materials and construction methods, and technology applications in architecture, engineering, and construction. He teaches courses in Building Information Modeling (BIM), 3D design, wood properties, and construction materials, and has mentored students from undergraduate advising through graduate supervision.
Schreyer is author or co-author of three major textbooks published by John Wiley & Sons: Architectural Design with SketchUp (3rd ed., 2023), Fundamentals of Residential Construction (5th ed., 2022, with Allen and Thallon), and the recent Mass Timber: Materials, Design, and Construction (2026, with Clouston). He is also the creator of ten open-source SketchUp extensions widely used in AEC professional practice and education. His research centers on digital fabrication and design, structural optimization, and the behavior of wood-based structural systems — with a particular focus on innovative connection systems.
Active in university governance, Schreyer has served on many personnel, campus visioning, and infrastructure committees. He holds an M.A.Sc. in Wood Science from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and a Dipl.-Ing. (B.S. equiv.) in Civil Engineering from Rhein-Main University of Applied Sciences in Germany.
Courses Taught
BCT 204 – Construction Materials & Methods (3 cr., Spring)
BCT 304 – Properties of Wood (3 cr., Fall)
BCT 420 – Designing with 3D CAD & BIM (3 cr., Fall & Spring)
BCT 492A – Jobs and Professional Life in BCT (1 cr., Spring)
ECO 620 – Studies in Building Information Modeling (3 cr., Fall & Spring)
ECO 692S – Readings in Sustainable Building Systems (1 cr., Fall)
Books
Clouston, P., Schreyer, A. 2026. "Mass Timber: Materials, Design, and Construction". 1st Ed., John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ
Schreyer, A., 2023. “Architectural Design with SketchUp: 3D Modeling, Extensions, BIM, Rendering, Making, Scripting, and LayOut“. 3rd Ed., John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ
Allen, E., Schreyer, A., Thallon, R. 2022. “Fundamentals of Residential Construction“. 5th Ed., John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ
Selected Recent Publications
View my ORCID profile here.
A Bahmanzad, PL Clouston, SR Arwade, AC Schreyer (2020) “Shear Properties of Symmetric Angle-Ply Cross-Laminated Timber Panels“. Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering 32 (9)
A Bahmanzad, PL Clouston, SR Arwade, AC Schreyer (2020) “Shear Properties of Eastern Hemlock with Respect to Fiber Orientation for Use in Cross Laminated Timber“. Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering 32 (7)
Clouston, P.L., Schreyer, A.C. (2019) “J.W. Olver Design Building. A Case Study of a US Mass Timber Building“. Wood Design Focus. 29 (2)
Khoshbakht, N., Clouston, P.L., Arwade, S.R., Schreyer, A.C.. (2019) “Evaluation of ASTM D5764 Dowel Connection Tests for Laminated Veneer Bamboo (LVB)“. ASTM Journal of Testing and Evaluation, 47, no. 4 (2019): 2717-2736.
Khoshbakht, N., Clouston, P.L., Arwade, S.R., Schreyer, A.C.. (2018) “Computational Modeling of Laminated Veneer Bamboo (LVB) Dowel Connections“. ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, 30 (2)
Fiocchi, L.C., Schreyer, A., Clouston, P.L. 2017. “A New Teacher on Campus“. Learning by Design, Fall 2017.
You can find a complete list here.