BCT Lecture Series – FREE

BCT Lectures begin September 21^st — SAVE THE DATES

Registration is by invitation of the UMASS BCT Program— this program is free and open to the public
Architects who want LUs recorded must register and submit the administrative fee.

Boston’s Big Dig
Monday, September 21 | 4:00-5:15 | Zoom |1HSW
Dan McNichol, Journalist & Author, Spokesperson for the Big Dig

Dan McNichol, best-selling author and award-winning journalist discusses the nation’s most intriguing, modern, urban marvel, Boston’s Big Dig.  McNichol shares how the mega urban project has come to define how we plan, design, construct cities in the United States…for better and for worse. The interactive conversation concludes with how The Big Dig, the current plague and climate change challenge the promise of urbanism in America. For over two decades, Dan McNichol was the spokesperson for the largest, most complex highway construction project ever embarked upon in U.S. history: Boston’s Big Dig. McNichol will discuss the management of this mega-public works project, officially known as the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, sharing lessons learned as well as describing the civil engineering feats of innovative tunnel designs, the creation of one of the world’s largest ventilation systems, and the construction of a cable stayed bridge over the Charles River in Boston. Big Dig’s project management revealing managerial successes and failures of the project’s many “messy complexities.”

Forests, Forestry & Climate Change
Monday, October 5 | 4:00-5:15 | Zoom |1HSW
Robert Perschel, Executive Director, NE Forestry Foundation

How we protect and manage our forest base will likely determine if New England can meet its climate goals.  Robert Perschel will speak about the Forest to Cities Climate Challenge, forestry standards for both storing carbon and producing materials for buildings 6-18 stories tall.

Strategies to Lower CO² Emissions Using Concrete Masonry
Monday, October 19 | 4:00-5:15 | Zoom |1HSW
Heidi Jandris, BArch, Technical Services, Jandris Block

Lowering the embodied carbon of our concrete masonry units during production is essential to lowering the overall global warming potential of our products. The CMU industry on average uses less cement than ready-mixed concrete, due to the manufacturing process.. CMU uses a dry-cast, zero-slump concrete mix, and its’ unique structure enables us to accelerate CO2 sequestration rates. During this presentation we will cover greenhouse gasses, climate change scenarios, and CO2 emission sources. We will discuss climate change solutions including adaptation which includes resiliency. We will discuss mitigation, and show how we are able to lower embodied carbon during CMU production by implementing breakthrough technology.

THIS MONTH:
A Better Way to Build in the 21^st Century
Monday, November 2 | 4:00-5:15 | Zoom |1LU
Tedd Benson, Founder, and CEO of Bensonwood & Unity Homes

What are the critical ingredients of more enlightened homebuilding? In this presentation, we’ll discuss the ingredients of a better work culture, design rules for smart standardization, energy performance standards that must be normalized, and why “open building” disentanglement are all critical ingredients of a more enlightened age of homebuilding that will get us to a better future.