When you have a pop media and culture without architecture critics, you forget the lessons of Pruitt Igoe—technology is only part of the equation. You can value engineer and value engineer and value engineer and you’ll create more and more problems. Especially when the developer is further disconnected from people, site, context and meaning.
The forgotten lesson is that modernist housing projects mostly failed in the 50s-70s is because bureaucrats and developers failed to implement architects principles for sound design. But the McUrbanists will look for other causes: transportation, flight, etc. But those are all rooted in design, not politics.
It’s telling that the McUrbanist agenda is featuring low-cost (for them) developer housing to be sold to a luxury clientele celebrated as working class heroes. Meanwhile there are many skilled economy designers who have already delivered site-specific housing that’s much more sound and appealing—but a single building is not a silver bullet gimmick narrative for the NYTimes.
8
As a New Business Development for AARP, one of the verticals I focused on was Housing Innovation (for 50+). As a solution to "Aging in Place", Manufactured and Modular Homes offers affordability and adaptability.
There were High-End Solutions like Blue Homes (SF) and Low and Mid Range solutions like Clayton Homes (Berkshire Hathaway) and other national and regional Manufactured/Modular providers.
There were also "Granny Pads" (poor choice of name), a Small Home solution that allows "Independent Living" with small efficiency Homes that can be placed on the property of Families, providing privacy and independence. Many of these Senior Housing Solutions are now being developed with Universal Design in mind (meaning, adaptable design can be applied as owner ages). There is a significant barrier in local zoning laws with Manufactured Homes, but it is part of the process.
My point is, Manufactured/Modular Homes offer multiple solutions for not only First Time Buyers, Vacation Home, Affordable Housing but is a terrific solution for Senior Housing and Aging in Place. Look for a Certified Age In Place consultant (CAPS) to help you choose the right solution for you and your family. This is a housing sector that will be rising.
9
Capital's drive to deskill the manufacturing labor process to cut costs is finally coming to construction, and the first fatality will be the old-line craft unions. Replacing them will be the first real industrial unions in this business, provided that unions can still organize at all under the new authoritarian labor law regime being adopted by both Republicans and Democrats. The upside for workers is that the potential for job-site solidarity will increase and that racist and sexist exclusion as part of the generally conservative politics of craft unions will decrease in this industry. The downside is that modular construction work can easily be shipped abroad and shipped back to the US, adding to the drop in unionization in general and further undercutting wages. To reverse Mr. Bradshaw's optimistic final comment, building in low-wage, off-shore platforms seems an inevitable future prospect and it will sure blow the hell out of union jobs in construction.
5
In the mid-1980s, three factories in Woodland, California (near Sacramento) were building both complete single-family homes and apartments in huge factories. They were assembled by workers, using assembly line systems and automation, including pneumatic tools, rolls of roofing and other materials - and could be completed (with all appliances, carpeting, interior and exterior finishes) within one week. They were modules that could be shipped on trucks to building sites and simply bolted together in days. It took about 3 weeks from first order to ready-to-occupy homes and apartments - and cost 1/3 the cost of individual site-built housing.
These were built under the Federal "Manufactured Housing Act," a Carter Administration law that legalized "manufactured" and "modular" homes built to very high standards - inspected in the factory by Federal agents and exempt from local limitation, regulation and inspection.
Many modular apartments were built to replace low-cost housing destroyed by LA freeway construction, as well as new motel units in Texas. Even prior to this, however, one third of ALL housing in the US Northeast was factory-built.
A partner and I tried to introduce manufactured housing for non-profits in Northern California in the mid-1990s - and were illegally prevented by the HUD administrator, who "believed" that site-building was cheaper. So here we are, as the Carter administration and trend data predicted, in a housing crisis.
20
Moving to prefabricated condominiums and apartments makes more sense than prefabricated homes because the options and unit size have increased standardization. Cruise ship construction employs similar methods where entire cabins are built then ‘plugged in’ to each other on the decks of the ship.
There are efficiencies with building houses in this method. Precise construction, tighter controls over quality, raw materials, and waste – it amazes me the wood waste that many construction projects create. It is also much friendlier for the factory construction workers – a ceiling is built like a wall so there is no more awkward working over your head. More critical is that all of the trades are in place at the same time so there is no delay waiting for plumbers, hvac, and electrical subs to perform their duties.
It does not surprise me in the least that unions are up in arms over this method. Sorry, but wiring a home is not rocket science and plumbing is becoming more plug and play instead of welding copper pipes together.
The big question, not addressed in the article, are costs to get the prefabricated units to a job site.
11
Nice idea. But how much will the landlord charge for rent? If they charge $2100 or more and call that affordable housing and there is no fully funded Below Market Rate program fully established and staff d by the municipal government, then tha is not affordable housing and the housing problem will be worsened further. That is essentially what is happening now. Even Medium or even upper income people who make more than 120% of the average median income cannot afford the so-called affordable housing units being built.
1
By the 1970s, modular units were used to build low-rise condominium projects in the northeast SC town of North Myrtle Beach. They were stacked by cranes and tied down against hurricanes. Local labor built the staircases, decks and connecting walkways, the pool and other amenities. These condos have fared well in the ensuing years, hurricanes and all.
This article didn't say, but I would imagine having year-round steady work means that in the end workers earn as much or nearly as much as they do working on-site. They get benefits that may not be available with site-work.
It sounds like a win-win.
7
Modular is a nice idea. It works if transportation costs are low and staging at the jobsite are practical. On site construction has been hampered by the division of labor by trade, started by unions but kept up by archaic licensing requirements. We have relied on immigrant labor forever in the industry. We are restricting that flow and that is making things worse. Construction in many parts of the country is seasonal work that people flee from when they can. Trying to force the small number of unemployed, who may not live where jobs are and are unskilled or too old, to increase constructions ranks is impossible and the myth of certain political groups in this country that live in an alternate reality.
3
During World War II, in the San Francisco Bay area, shipbuilding changed from a slow craft system to a speedier factory system. My father who had grown up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin worked in the shipyards. The factory system allowed the US to produce the ships that won the war in the Pacific. It looks like our housing crisis is kin to the need for ships during World War II.
3
The implication of the statement that early 17th century settlers built homes of materials shipped from England is very misleading. Metal products like nails and hardware were indeed imported, but not wood and certainly not bricks. It importation of bricks is an often repeated myth. Brick making in America began as soon as the settlers arrived. See Abbott Lowell Cummings, The Framed houses of Massachusetts Bay, 1625-1725 (1979), page 119.
4
Any discussion about skyrocketing construction costs should factor in the astronomical cost of insurance. As the author notes construction worker productivity has been tepid since WWII, but the cost of construction per unit is at a point where it can be barely profitable in some locales. Increased labor costs relative to inflation cannot account for that. Insurance costs for general contractors have soared. Much like the healthcare, construction costs will continue to outpace inflation until we get a handle on managing liability costs.
I wonder the degree to which the prefab model cuts insurance overhead by limiting the number of insured parties involved in a construction project. If it does, based on the lower pay rates for prefab factory labor, it seems the savings are concentrated at the top.
4
I was viewing the photo of the apartment complex in Berkeley, CA, made of prefabricated units. The first thing that came to my mind was that the birds would have a place to live when they start building their nests on top of the window shade covers (or whatever those things are called). And, knowing the city of Berkeley, it would only be a matter of time before a law is passed outlawing the removal of any bird nests outside your window. Lol.
2
Prefab apartments work great in Japan. These things go up in a couple of weeks there, though planning probably takes a couple of years. Tolerance and design is excellent. A lot of the single family housing in Japan now is pre-fab from Canada. "American houses". Shear wall and plywood construction only came to Japan around 15 years ago due to initiatives to build houses that last longer than the traditional post and beam structures. These improvements, lobbied for by the American Plywood Association and environmentalists, are an example of how technology sharing across nations improve the human condition.
Trade brings improvements in life style and promotes excellence through competition. I suppose I would be happy today to still be driving my 1959 Olds 98, but competition and regulation that has improved America's auto game. Sadly, USA does not have a system that involves corporations and labor in creating the common good and needs laws to do everything. I share in the belief that regulators can be heavy-handed, and lawmakers feckless and partisan, but have to acknowledge the improvements that are plain to see. The best improvements come about through competition, which is cooperation with fairness and transparency.
3
Let's hope they are also building in energy efficiency and nontoxic materials.
8
Re: Trades unions’ resistance to modular. Reporter should talk to the Ratner family in Cleveland about their experience in NYT’s back yard. Before Bruce started to transform downtown Brooklyn, Forest City tried to transform affordable multifamily housing in NYC, using factory-built, stackable modular units. Collusion between the trades and the inspectors of our benighted City put the kibosh on that experiment. There were rumors of violence and, perhaps, even murder. (One foreman fell to his death).
7
The idea of assembly line-built housing is very appealing. But I have to wonder if the materials being used are going to last. The photos in this story show units being built out of Oriented Strand Board, a product made of glue and chunks of wood.
Currently, thousands of shipping containers are disposed of every year, after the stresses of being stacked on ships slightly distort the containers. These boxes are made of steel, which will outlast OSB by decades. They are large enough for use as small apartments, or can be welded together to form single family homes.
Housing made of shipping containers is showing up already in many places, including New York city. Zoning commissions often have fits about them, because of concerns about value, but storage containers are proving to be durable, long-term structures.
The housing crisis in large cities demands units suited for singles and couples more than for families. Insisting that every new home be a single-family home will strangle the growth of the housing stock. For many people, home is a place where they sleep, not a place where they spend lots of time. They don't need lots of space, they need affordability and durability.
Building with wood is becoming more and more impractical, as the supply of good wood dwindles. Steel will have to do in the future.
3
A closer look at the pictures will reveal that the oriented strand board (OSB) is attached to wooden studs and strips, much as is done in traditional construction. That is, the OSB is applied as sheathing or cladding over wood studs, which provides the considerable strength required by local/state building codes.
5
WOW, " the units in Berkeley are not equipped with air-conditioning." Yet again the reason this region of CA is so attractive. Average temperature: 58.1°F, Annual high temperature: 67.8°F, Average annual precipitation - rainfall: 26.75 inch, Annual low temperature: 48.4°F
6
Smart use of resources to solve social housing challenges. This story supports an intuitive reason that free enterprise capitalism is allocating resources efficiently to solve market inefficiency with innovative manufacturing techniques. Now if we could solve political challenges with similar application of knowledge ....
5
This informative article ends with a dunce of a statement - implying that unions are the 'problem' with construction.
I live in a 3 year old multi-unit apartment building similar to thousands others built in the last 10 years by disreputable contractors and sub-contractors who hire 'independent contractors' as workers. These 'independent contractors' are often undocumented workers who receive little more than minimum wage. They are usually unskilled and often haven't learned English well enough to become skilled on the job.
What I've just described isn't conjecture or hyperbole. The result is that many of these buildings burn in conflagrations during construction, many buildings quickly show signs of serious decay due to fast-paced, poor construction - unfinished plumbing and wiring. The mistakes are alarming and dangerous - the outcomes have already been deadly.
Unions aren't the enemy. They demand developers follow safety guidelines for workers and the eventual tenants. They demand fair wages and trained workers.
Safe Infrastructure must be held sacrosanct if we don't wish to see the kinds of horrors that were predominate before we forced protective legislation. Unions were the proponents of that legislation - whether we like it or not, their success required power.
Anti-union propaganda has done nothing positive for our country. The gig economy is rife with abuse and low pay, and youth will have nothing to retire on, if they live that long.
33
I take exception only with what seems to be your point that the shoddy construction in many new buildings is the fault of the independent contractors....the real problems start long before they enter the picture. They don't select the materials, or manage the construction.
3
Why no mention of Blu Homes who have been making prefab homes - also in Vallejo California - for over 10 years? I've admired their designs, if not their price tags, for years. Their market seems to be second vacation homes for wealthier customers. If they could turn their keen design sense towards a house for a middle class person, I'd be a happy customer.
3
Factory-built housing is very old news in many other parts of the world. However, in the US rising real estate prices, escalating costs of traditional construction and shortages of skilled workers have at last created an environment in which factory-built housing is financially feasible.
Of course the unions are opposing this evolution, but their shrinking membership and the pressures for factory-built housing are reducing unions' power and relevance. Besides, I think most people would agree that it would be absurd for builders of modular housing to have to deal with many unions in a factory setting.
Factory-built is not appropriate or feasible for many other types of construction (e.g., large office buildings), so I think the remaining union tradesmen (and women) are not in any danger of finding themselves out of work. However, I am sure the union leaders are fearful that membership levels will continue to decline.
If housing shortages are to be dealt with expeditiously, factory-built/modular housing is the way to go in many situations.
3
I still don't understand why we don't allow more RV type parks. This way people could easily move to where there is work. Right now full time dwellers in such are considered poor or wack jobs and generally must move on after some period of time....is it really about a loss of revenue from a more uncertain tax base?
5
Steel and concrete are the basis of almost all new apartment construction in cities like New York, because of fire and storm codes. They’ve built wood-based large apartment complexes in New Jersey, but several have been destroyed in massive fires. Building codes there were subsequently changed. And given the variation in City plot size/shape, I don’t see this factory construction idea working where housing is most needed. It might work for single family houses or townhouses on large tracks of vacant land.
As for the labor component, emphasizing factory built housing isn’t going to solve a shortage of skilled tradesman. If you want to drive people away from the trades, tell them they’ll be replaced in the future with lower paid assembly line workers. The $30 wage isn’t that great because construction workers can have big gaps between projects and are completely unemployed in economic downturns. Look at the constant harping about a future of self driving trucks. Well, that rhetoric doesn’t solve a near term need for new truckers in a field where long hours, low pay, and high turnover is common.
Whenever you hear venture capital, startups, and disruption mentioned, you should be very skeptical.
16
Great point about concrete and steel. Here is a way to approach that issue - continue to build the floors and supports out of concrete and steel. And once the floor is completed, there is no reason why the modular unit cannot be placed within that structure and benefit from the concrete floors and ceilings. Then once all the housing modules are inside, the exterior of the building can go in place.
I would like to put in a plug for my father, Bernie Barinas, an architect in the 60's and 70's whose work in pre-fab homes made the medium not just acceptable but featured on front covers of House Beautiful, Home and Garden and titles specializing in vacation homes. One of the innovations that brought mainstream attention to what had been a low-end market was a roofing material that looks like rick rack on steroids but of galvanized steel that gave roofs so much strength that it was adopted for all housing pre-fab or not, in Florida.
My father's homes never looked cheap and anticipated the now common open floor plan especially the kitchen flowing into the main reception room. I remember him bringing home materials for us to tell him what color they were because he was colorblind and take me and my mom on tours of kitchens he was considering. He wanted to know that the window no kitchen he designed with out didn't make us feel trapped, no cabinet was out of our reach and the flow from work surface to another was smooth.
My one comment to Factory OS: you could make those floor strips between components match the flooring. While you're at it, make it slightly domed so when sweeping or vacuuming, bits don't get trapped in the tiny corner where the strip meets the floor but big enough to trap dirt and unsightly bits that will get glued there by the flotsum of daily life. Make sure you have the design and common sense input that a pioneer in the field did.
23
Does the author actually believe that buildings emanate and flow solely from developers to contractors? Why is there no mention made of ARCHITECTS!? This is a problem stemming from a lack of public education to which the author succumbs: Buildings aren't hatched. They first get designed by architects working for their clients, the developers. Their designs are then submitted for approval, and then bid out for construction. Therein lies one of the major problems in construction, putting the cart before the horse, and to which no consumer would ever find acceptable: Not pricing buildings AS they are being designed by architects. (Imagine finding out that the price of your car has increased 30% after you've taken delivery of it)! Adding to this problem, the American Institute of Architects has buried its head in the sand regarding advancements in technology and the ability of architects to take on liability regarding cost estimating, environmental factoring, and construction means and methods. Until architects regain their essential recognition and are enabled to take on a leadership role, which entails taking on liability and conveying a broad range of information - collectively with developers and construction managers - the problem will remain the same: we'll end up living in overpriced boxes with little semblance of what comprises something even more important - COMMUNITY.
8
Simply looking at the picture here: why double-top the window RO? Why double-up on center cripples? Code may be different in CA, so forgive me if that’s the case, but that’s not how we build here in the northeast. Seems wasteful and unnecessary. I’m sure there’s method to the madness... would love to be informed.
2
Earthquake code regulations for one thing ,just like windshear strapping in the south and midwest.
12
Building codes as Alan suggested. But also the modules require transportation and may have some degree of over building to ensure they stay rigid during the shipping phase.
2
The Ikea of housing. "Ah, I see you''ve chosen the Ooopus model. That will be packages B-08, C-08, and D-59 on aisle H-24. Make sure that you understand the directions diagram before you start. There should be one Allen wrench, 937 wooden pegs, and three tubes of glue in your packages."
6
There is a shortage of affordable and mid-range housing, which of course must meet local/state building codes, so this type of construction would help meet this pressing need.
I am sure there are high-end neighborhoods and developments where these prefabricated homes could meet local/state building codes but would not meet the deed and homeowners association requirements regarding minimum size, trim, amenities, etc., and therefore would be prohibited.
There will always be a market for large, upscale homes; the prefabricated homes and apartments described in this article are intended to meet a different range of needs.
3
Someone provided serious misinformation for this story. Building a building requires very different and skilled trades, working in a particular sequence, and the skill required to do these jobs has gotten more technical as buildings have gotten more complicated. Contractors don't use subcontractors to offload risk. They use subcontractors for these trades because they need them each for only a certain portion of the construction process. If the contractor employed all these skilled workers themselves, they'd be sitting around doing nothing much of the time which doesn't pencil out, or every contractor would have to be so big they had enough projects that their plumbing crews, and framing crews and everyone else were always working. These trades require more skill than most people realize and are not interchangeable. I certainly wouldn't want a painter wiring or plumbing the place I was going to live in! And I probably wouldn't want an electrician pouring concrete. You want people doing the work who are skilled at that particular work and know what they're doing. There's already a serious labor shortage in the industry because everyone wants to be a techie these days. This shortage will only intensify as people in the industry retire. Modular building has some advantages, but still doesn't do much to address the labor shortage problem or the high cost of land.
There's a lot of other misinformation in this article as well, but there's only so much room to comment.
24
This type of construction is becoming more feasible (profitable) because skilled tradesmen (and women) are scarce and their costs are high, which makes a factory approach more feasible and (potentially) lucrative.
The person in a Chinese factory who assembles electronic components into a TV system doesn't make the components or even know how they work; all the assembler needs to know is how to put the pieces together correctly. The same is more or less true of pre-fabricated parts of a house, which require a lower skill level to assemble.
There will always be a demand for skilled tradespersons to work on tall buildings and upscale homes, where prefabrication is not really an option.
2
While this sounds great, and has a lot of potential, I prefer factory made elements to be for single family houses, not large complexes. Why? it's the joints between the units that make up the structural and waterproofing integrity of a larger housing structure. And by building piecemeal, it seems you've increased the number of joints 4-6 fold. I'm not saying it's going to fail, but your workers in the factory and in the field have to know it's an issue and understand how to avoid failure.
The other limitation to this, perhaps, is the size of our roadways. Are each of the building parts going to be limited to 8' in width in order to be loaded on a truck or a train? If that's the case, I foresee a lot of narrow rooms in our future.
5
What makes a pre-fab unit high-end? These are all basically box-like Lego pieces, so is it the proportions and choice of materials? It would seem that the only thing that would distinguish a high-end structure was precisely that it wasn't pre-fab. Just read in this paper about the agonies, pure agonies, an architect of luxury buildings must go through in order to attract and placate their vapid clients. I hardly see that happening here.
2
Looks pretty great to me. A quality product that will help make housing more affordable. Sorry, unions, but you're in the wrong here.
34
Manufactured homes have a troubled history in the US: bait-and-switch with housing models, shoddy construction, even financing scams. Besides, in an area where housing is expensive, cheap housing only means one thing: land prices increase.
4
You are referring to mobile homes the original manufactured homes, whole different ball of wax these days
From George Romney’s “Operation Breakthrough” to the current attempts at factory built multi-unit housing success has remained elusive. Zoning and outdated building codes are factors as are market acceptance, quality control, and achievement of meaningful scale (volume). It’s harder and more complicated than it may seem at first glance. If it were easy, it would have been done long ago. Realistically, factory built multi-unit housing might make a modest contribution to alleviating the housing squeeze that exists in many local areas. Let’s hope so.
7
I thought the issue was less home building and more land cost? granted also the government prevented you from making more dense areas.
5
This was done on a large scale in Britain after WW2, when the UK government in London required that local councils all over Great Britain quickly create a great deal of new "social housing" (public housing to us in the US). The Brits ended up building a large number of both high-rise "tower blocks" & low-rise apartment buildings throughout the UK using factory-made concrete slabs reinforced with steel rods ( or "rebar") for all the walls, floors & ceilings). The slabs arrived on site already plumbed, wired, trimmed, etc. - & once there, the mostly-finished slabs only had to be bolted together.
Unfortunately, most of the housing the Brits built this way turned out to be so shoddy that it was dangerous & unlivable, & it had to be torn down. The problem wasn't with the idea of prefab, factory-made housing - it was how the idea was executed. Every step of the way, the work was done poorly (often not at all). And apparently there were lax standards & no virtually no regulatory oversight either in the factories or on the building sites.
Adam Curtis did an eye-opening documentary "The Great British Housing Disaster" back in 1984. It's a cautionary tale of what NOT to do, & it illustrates all the old adages about how good intentions & best-laid plans often lead to bad outcomes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch5VorymiL4
27
I believe the off-site/modular construction industry has improved quite a bit since the British "social housing" effort of the 1940s and '50s.
2
This is an interesting article, but the starting premise seems wrong. The housing crisis in the coastal cities is caused mainly by zoning restrictions, and not by the high cost of building. Even if you could instantly summon condos out of thin air, where would you put them in San Francisco, or New York? Most lots in these cities are already built up to the legal limit, so there's no way to add more apartments. And since more and more people still want to live there, prices will go up.
The author says in the Bay Area construction prices went up 30% over three years. But I'm pretty sure apartment prices went up much more than that over the same period. So while high construction costs can explain a small part of the housing crisis, the most important factor here is zoning. If you don't allow more houses in the big cities, housing will be unaffordable as long as well-off people want to live in them.
14
There is no magic technology that is going to solve this problem in our most congested urban areas. If you've been to Singapore, then you know how this turns out: 20+ story residential towers clustered in communities connected by metropolitan rail. Of course, we Americans are not Singaporeans so the result here could hardly be expected to turn out so enjoyably.
For Americans, the solution has always been, and remains: If you can't afford to live where you work, then move to somewhere you can. Untold millions of retirees are doing this all the time. It's called mobility, historically it has been the great relief valve for social pressures, it is what leads to creative destruction.
If you think the greedy billionaire class are doing this to you, then surprise them! Don't do what they expect you to do. Instead, do something unexpected, that they can't control or profit from. Move outta' town!
21
I hope someone from FEMA reads this. According to a previous NYT article, FEMA was building $250,000 temporary homes for displaced residents after the 2017 Houston hurricane and flooding that would later be torn down. This brilliance from a taxpayer funded organization that couldn't even get blue tarps to Puerto Rico. (maybe that is because they wait until the hurricane hits to round up suppliers, many of whom have no performance track record)
We should be thankful for Henry Ford and his assembly line idea. Imagine if dozens of contractors were paid to build a car in your garage from components of hundreds of suppliers. Then because the process is so prone to potentially dangerous problems, another army of inspectors would be required to try to find problems and incompatibilities.
The residential construction industry is ripe for disruption.
20
Conor, maybe I missed it, but we've been talking about a labor shortage in homebuilding for at least five years. What's missing is the industry's commitment to the next generation of workers. They have no PR machine to make home building attractive and no interest in establishing a real apprenticeship program. I know you're writing about housing, but to have John Burns comment about building where people want to live begs the question "what can we do to make more places where people want to live?" This too has been in the news and in front of policy makers for years.
Factory built homes is a solution, but more creativity and commitment to the long run is what is really needed.
18
And one day after all the infrastructure is in place they'll tear all these down like the old tenements were tore down to make way for Lincoln Center. More playroom for the rich to romp and indulge in their earthly pleasures at the expense of the poor. They'll be left to scatter to find refuge wherever, like rats when the woodpile is disturbed. Then we can have this same discussion all over again.
4
If corporations took some of the $1 Trillion they got in tax cuts and used that to increase American worker pay (like they promised they would buy have yet to make good on), then rising housing costs wouldn’t be a problem.
The problem is that costs are still rising, and the greedy billionaire ruling class refuses to give entry level professionals, or anyone else except their executive golfing buddies, a significant pay bump. The key word is significant. They got literally hundreds of billions of dollars. But they increase worker pay by 2%?
Nothing is going to solve this problem, nothing, until American workers start getting paid what they are OWED, instead of what Donald Trump & his corrupt billionaire friends say they should get.
38
Robert Parker of Houston was doing this in the late 1990's in Houston with a company he formed called Sunrise Housing. I remember visiting the factory and seeing the process, much as you have shown. There were a number of multifamily projects constructed in the Houston area, most of which I believe are still existing. Just wondering if you came across this in your research. Something that should be mentioned is that this project takes a terrific amount of capital, and the returns are far from immediate.
9
This is so simplistic. The high cost of housing has nothing to do with the cost of the physical structure, but everything to do with where it sits. Prefabricated housing had it's hayday after WW2 so it's hardly anything new. A modular mobile home has all the comforts of a house but without a place to hook it up to water, electricity and sewer it's not a home. Someone else is repackaging the wheel and calling it revolutionary.
17
As a former contractor, builder, hands on carpenter as well as a project manager and engineer on large projects, some observations: Factory built housing is generally far superior to site built, more standardization, few environmental variables, constant costs, better quality control, instant inspection and correction, etc. It's also cheaper, as the article points out, which eats at the craw of the craft union leaders. In NY some years ago, for various reasons, some building unions had no choice but to accept 2 tiered pay scales, one for smaller/residential work, another for larger commercial/industrial work, the same could be applied to factory built homes. If the factory operators integrated apprentice training programs and facilities, and those were integrated with curriculums at local schools, the unions would eat it up, and be more than willing to negotiate conditions/wages/benefits, etc. Marketing should emphasize that once again American factory workers were going to be able to afford to buy what they've made, as was the case at the beginning of the Ford assembly line program. Given the current state of the industry, the decline of unions, the wild gyrations in the market for housing, the variability of employment and the lack of continuity within it, it seems like a win-win. I get why the plumbers and electricians would chaffe, but like it or not, this is progress. You can't go back, even for a president obsessed with coal. This is the future.
74
Modular homes are the first to be destroyed in hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes. One need only to look at Florida and Oklahoma to see how they have strengthened building codes--which, of course, reduce the profitability of these factory-built "trailers."
3
It occurs to me that, as illustrated and described, these units could not be stacked more than 3 high without a steel skeleton, roof and curtain wall. That would cancel out a large portion of the savings both in time and money, unless I'm missing something. On the other hand, I live in a manufactured home that has survived 80 mph winds and monsoon torrents, so not all modulars are as susceptible as Olive indicates. 1600 sq. ft. on a full acre, with all utilities brought in and connected, for less than $160K strikes me as a bargain, wouldn't you say? It's technically a doublewide, but you wouldn't know it unless you crawled under.
3
I agree with you. My first two years out of business school were spent turning around a high-rise condominium project that was put up with such poor quality control that we had to take out entire walls and ceilings and re-do them, to say nothing of re-caulking an entire curtain wall. Apparently the job was so out of control that an entire floor of the project was set aside for "nooners". There's a lot to be said for the precision and supervision of the factory floor, if it is run with the kind of craftsmanship and cooperation with workers that Toyota has brought to auto assembly. My understanding is that there are now ten-story apartments going up in Brooklyn that are largely pre-fab. In the Pacific Northwest, there is now wide-spread interest in cross laminated timber. It seems only a matter of time before that and factory assembly of individual units are married together.
10
Is this generation of modular housing being designed to meet the higher energy efficiency standards starting to be required in cities like NY? Can this kind of modular construction pass a blower door test needed to be Passive House certified?
If not, then, it's a retread of energy slurping, expensive to heat and cool housing that's so 20th century.
2
Yes - search for Vermod modulars - a company in VT that is trying to gain traction making, essentially, well built near-net-zero modular homes.
5
This type of housing (and other types, as well) must meet local/state building codes, which all require a higher degree of energy efficiency than older, more traditional housing. Actually, federal, state and local entities have raised the energy efficiency standards for buildings of all types on numerous occasions since the oil embargo of the 1970s.
"Developers are taking on residential building challenges by extending the concept of prefabricated housing..."?
"Developers"?
Sure they have residents' best interests at heart! We all know that, right?
Cheaper and cheaper, smaller and smaller, but more and more expensive at the same time!
And remember how characters like Bloomberg touted "micro apartments", less than 100 sq. feet? (smaller that the requirements for prison cells in some cases!)
How about some more "planned communities" aimed at well-planned, resident-friendly housing and amenities? Remember that THAT was what urban planners and "developers" came up with to address housing needs? Why can't the same thing be done now? (The "developers" can still make big profits, even if not such obscenely high ones!)
16
"And remember how characters like Bloomberg touted "micro apartments", less than 100 sq. feet? (smaller that the requirements for prison cells in some cases!)"
And as an added bonus, if you have more possessions than those sardine-can studios would fit, you get branded a crazy hoarder.
But if you as a landlord have more than your mansion would fit, you'll make the next episode of the "Cribs" series du jour.
5
Bloomberg's micro apartments were NOT 100 sft, but more like 250 sft. And nobody would be forced to live in them if they didn't want to. Also, prefabricated housing has nothing to do with apartment size - you can prefabricate large kitchens too.
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I currently live in the smallest home I've ever owned: 1275 sq. ft. Its efficient floor plan means that it has three bedrooms, two full baths and "extras" like vaulted and tray ceilings, crown molding and a laundry room. along with a breakfast nook, dining room and living room. All the rooms are reasonably sized. The master bath has a separate shower and garden tub. I lack for nothing. My lot is 2/3 of an acre, really larger than I would want, but half is naturalized and untended.
My largest home, about 2600 sq. ft. when that was considered quite large, was also on 2/3 of an acre.
I much prefer my current home. It's easy to clean, looks good inside and out and suits my needs.
Several friends live in homes closer to 1000 sq. ft. and they are comfortable too. There is nothing wrong with smaller homes when they are modern and meet needs.
6
Most developers care about nothing but top profit. Forget social responsibility. They will build whatever local authorities allow. They are literally destroying cities and communities with their greed.
Some are talking about building "tube" centers, as the have in Japan, so workers can work in the city, sleep in the tube and go home on weekends. What kind of social solution it that?
BIG investors created the supposed "housing boom" and the housing meltdown. They broke the unions. Many housing industry workers have abandoned the field because the pay is not there. Now BIG developers want to build housing in factories with poverty-wage workers.
Please, local authorities, start holding developers responsible for infrastructure in your communities. Do not let them talk you into tax breaks so they can ruin your communities and take the profits to buy a private island somewhere so they don't have to live in the socially unconscious cities/towns/communities they have created.
46
$30/hour plus health benefits doesn't seem like a poverty wage. Of course, if you are currently making double, you won't be happy with the change, but I don't see why we should worry about workers whose income would still be well above the median.
13
and another throw-away line in the story that needs to be addressed: This company isn't a 'start-up' anymore than any other business. When did just starting a business make it a start-up? Throw some tech into it and voila, a new moniker. Please. he's a homebuilder, plain and simple.
3
Ah yes, the usual rant about "social responsibility" of businesses. Business exist to make money. Otherwise, you are free to start a not-for-profit that builds "socially responsible" housing. And fail at it.
As far as tax breaks go, localities are competing for construction resources in a situation where demand exceeds supply. If one locality doesn't sweeten the deal, the one down the road probably will.
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