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The world of prefab and modular homes. |
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| The Saratogian |
A month ago, The Saratogian featured this 3-unit modular home in Saratoga Springs, NY.
According to owner, Helena Frost:
This is totally custom made in the factory...It really helped cut down on the cost, about $40 less per square foot.
See our earlier post for more details.
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| http://www.capsyscorp.com/portfolio.php?c=14&p=13 |
NY Daily news recently covered a prefab housing development in East New York.
Details:
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designer:
Alexander Gorlin Architects
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builder: Capsys Corp.
- developer: Nehemiah Housing Development Fund
- price: $158,000 - $350,000
- plan: over 550 homes by 2013
The Nehemiah houses in the Spring Creek development are being assembled
in a Brooklyn Naval Yard factory as big as a football field
where construction workers
churn out more than 8,000 square-feet per week on a supersized assembly line for homes. Working in three separate areas, men build ceilings, flooring and wall frames. Cement trucks pour concrete floors while blast machinists drill holes for pipes and wiring. Then, the three components merge as the homes take shape. Beams are established, paint is applied, and toilets are installed.
After tying down any loose parts such as kitchen drawers and oven doors, the 20-by-40 units are shipped by extra-wide flatbed trucks to the East New York site.
On site, a 250-ton hydraulic truck crane lifts the units on top of each other to build the two-, three- and four-story homes.
Worth noting:
Founded in the mid-1980s by powerful local preachers as a means to rebuild East New York, the Nehemiah Housing Development Fund Co. is the real estate arm of East Brooklyn Congregations. In 20 years, they built and sold more than 3,000 homes with a foreclosure rate of less than 1%.
Read the entire article for more information, and see pictures of the units on the Capsys website.
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| John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union |
Last week, Times Union covered a new 3-unit prefab building in Saratoga Springs, NY.
Highlights:
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builder: Westchester Modular Homes
- designer: Phinney Design Group
- 4,200 sf, 2 stories
- the sections arrived in six boxes
- "saved 20 percent on building and loan costs by going prefab"
- built in 8 days in the factory (plus additional work to be done on site)
Over the next few months, workers will add custom porches, cupolas and other features to make the home fit into the area's Victorian streetscape
Read the entire article for details.
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| http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/garden/20bronx.html |
The New York Times follows up on the Resolution: 4 prefab in the Bronx that they covered back in February.
After years of living with their son in a 900-square-foot bungalow, Regina and Bill Marengo wanted a bigger place.
Ms. Marengo, a civil engineer, hit on the idea of ordering a prefabricated house. If it could be built in a factory and transported to the site, she reasoned, the family could trade up with minimal disruption.
Which proved to be true:
[the] Marengo’s move to their relatives’ house in Morris Park, the Bronx, lasted only four months; with on-site construction it would have been far longer.
The cost?
The Marengos said they paid about $200,000 to Simplex and slightly more than that to Northside Construction.... For designing the house, the firm Resolution: 4 Architecture received 15 percent of the overall costs.
Read the full article for more details about Resolution: 4 and the construction process.
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| pratt.edu |
On April 3, New York's Pratt Institute will hold a symposium on Prefab Futures:
The one-day conference will present research and scholarship related to the history of prefabrication, contemporary and emerging techniques and approaches to prefabrication, as well as the social and sustainable potential of prefab and prefab technologies.
Participants include:
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Rocio Romero of Rocio Romero
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Charlie Lazor of Lazor Office
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Joseph Tanney of Resolution: 4 Architecture
Follow the link below for more info. Here's a tidbit they don't mention on the site: the event is free and open to the public.
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| rocioromero.com |
Via Inhabitat on Feb. 29:
To date, more than 110 LV prefabs have become home to owners throughout 23 states in the US, with 40 more under construction. While prefab fans have been able to tour the Rocio Romero show home in Missouri for several years, this weekend marks the first time that a finished LV is available for viewing in New York. The first National LV Open House Tour kicks off on March 1st (tomorrow!) in the Hudson Valley!
Sorry that we posted too late for the New York open house, but there will be more! The Rocio Romero site fills in the blanks:
This event is one of four that will be held throughout the country. The 2008 National Tour will provide attendees the opportunity to see and feel the LV space. Ms. Romero, Rocio Romero staff, homeowners, and general contractors will be present to discuss the LV design features, custom design options, the build process, and construction costs. Since 2003, more than 6,000 individuals have visited the Rocio Romero show home in Perryville, Missouri. Our new national tours will allow attendees to view our newest homes and experience the wide array of customization and lifestyles available to LV home owners.
The open house featured four pre-reserved time slots, costing $40/person. We'll do our best to get the dates for the other three events with plenty of advance notice.
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| Resolution: 4 Architecture via nytimes.com |
The New York Times reports:
The social event of the season in Locust Point, a quiet enclave of tidy family homes along the East Bronx waterfront, took place just over a week ago when a crane lifted two 18-ton halves of a prefabricated house off flatbed trailers and stacked them like Legos on an empty lot....Resolution 4: Architecture of Manhattan...designed the Bronx house...
Joseph Tanney, a partner in the firm, was approached in 2005 by Regina Marengo, president of an engineering consultancy company, about putting a modern prefab on the Bronx waterfront property where she and her husband, William, had lived in a bungalow for two decades.
Read more about the Resolution: 4 Architecture prefab in the full article.
(Hat tip: Prefab Dweller)
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| newsday.com |
From Newsday:
Working with East Norwich-based Ballymore Homes, one of the few modular builders on Long Island, the Hoyt family had a custom-built, 3,500-square-foot home designed, created in a factory and delivered to their lot within seven months in April 2005. The home cost them in the low- to mid-$500,000s. It would have cost 20 percent more if it had been traditionally constructed...."Friends of ours who had houses built the standard way had to wait twice as long as we did."
The full article discusses modular construction and prefabs in more depth.
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| re4a.com |
The New York Post recently wrote about prefab and modular companies, focusing on one couple's Resolution: 4-designed home in NY:
In January, construction will start at a factory in Scranton, Pa. It'll take just two weeks to build their home, which will be delivered via two trucks to the couple's land in Palenville, N.Y., by February. Putting up the home will take two to three months, so Philip and Ganade should be spending weekends in the country by May.
Specializing in modular and panelized architecture, Resolution: 4 has two N.Y.C. prefab homes planned, which is notable given the delivery and design limitations of erecting an urban home."
Marmol Radziner:
"All of the company's homes are built in a 65,000-square-foot factory near downtown Los Angeles, in a space big enough for three assembly lines of mods. When NYP Home recently stopped by, different mods of an 8,500-square-foot home for a Las Vegas client were being worked on in various sections of the factory. In one area, workers installed windows; in another area, cabinets were being added...."
And Rocio Romero:
"....a local contractor can finish the home, with costs averaging about $120 to $195 a square foot. But some customers go the ultimate DIY route: According to Romero, a couple from Virginia built the entire home themselves, except for the foundation and roof. The total amount spent: $85 a square foot, plus the cost of the kit...."
The article ended with a comment on the resale value of prefabs:
"One New York-based hedge fund manager told NYP Home that he's "100 percent sure" he could re-sell his Hamptons prefab home for the same price a neighboring home might sell for - and make a substantial profit."
Read the full article for more details on Resolution: 4 and these other prefab designers.
