A Nod to Mod: Three distinct developments use prefab construction to make their mark.

By Malorie R. Medellin

Southern Living magazine is onto something big. Last year, the popular consumer publication created its annual Idea House in Watersound, Fla. The home serves to showcase ideas and designs that the public can consider for their own homes. So what was the big lesson learned this time around? The home, named Tucker Bayou, was 80 percent complete when it arrived in Watersound. A beautiful, modern, and, more importantly, modular home, Tucker Bayou was far from the mobile home image so often associated with prefab projects. It’s a perfect example of a growing and promising construction trend.

The opportunities afforded by prefabricated or pre-engineered elements are getting harder for developers to ignore, especially as the housing market suffers through a sluggish year. Modular homes accounted for roughly 4.7 percent of 674,000 new residential sales in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to the Arlington, Va.-based National Modular Housing Council. Still, the total number of modular shipments this past year fell to 32,300 due to the slowing real estate market—the lowest total in the past five years. But as a whole, the 16.1 percent drop in modular home sales means the sector fared better than traditional stick-built units, which fell 26 percent.

Whether for residential, commercial, or any project in between, modular construction offers a cheaper, cleaner, faster, and more efficient building method, industry experts say. In addition to financial savings of up to 20 percent in some cases, prefab construction provides multiple environmental benefits by reducing onsite waste and utilizing recycled materials. Plus, since 80 percent to 90 percent of the construction is completed indoors, developers are better able to control quality, avoid weather delays, and lower the risk of theft.

Prefab has definitely come a long way from the basic modular home starter kits released by Sears at the turn of the century. Now encompassing insulated concrete forms and structural insulated panels in addition to modular units, prefab as a development tool has evolved both in style and method. The prefab build-out—which can range from steel framing, roofs, and insulated wall panels to the construction of an entire home—takes place off site, and the product is delivered to the project site where it is set in place into pre-laid foundations. For some smaller units, the building comes ready equipped down to carpeting and lighting connections. But in other cases, these amenities are added on site.

Demonstrating both the promising opportunities and key benefits of modular design, the following three developments show us just what prefab can do.

A Leap of Faith: Florida church gives prefab a chance and finds success.

Lee Walker, president of Walker Design & Construction, didn’t give up when bank appraisers said he couldn’t possibly build the new Lake Ida Church of Christ in Delray, Fla., for his targeted goal of $1.5 million. Why not? Walker had a secret weapon: prefabricated materials, estimated to save roughly 20 percent on construction expenses overall for the congregation.

Walker has more than 20 years of experience with prefab, specifi cally preengineered metal manufacturing, which includes but is not limited to pre-cut steel beams and assembled skeletons, roofing, and paneling. He partnered with Butler Manufacturing Co., a Blue-Scope Steel Co., in the early 1980s at the behest of his father and business partner Lee A. Walker. “He advised me that this was a good tool to have and that there were a lot of possibilities for it,” Walker says. And while prefab made up only a small percentage of their residential, commercial, and industrial projects in the beginning, it now makes up more than 70 percent of their business.

Guided by these experiences, Walker knew he needed to build Lake Ida Church using prefab parts in order to make the numbers work. Walker convinced the congregation’s entire construction committee that pre-engineered steel skeleton, roof, and insulated walls were the way to go, thanks to the help of Butler Manufacturing and a network of church developers known as Building God’s Way.

“Once they see that [prefab] isn’t some house trailer glued together and that it’s unique, they come around,” says Walker, who admits his plan initially received mixed reviews. But the look—combined with the price and efficiency—convinced even the biggest nonbeliever.

The final product didn’t disappoint. It took only 150 days to build Lake Ida from start to finish—a good two months faster than traditional construction. And the structural efficiencies are numerous. The church is hurricaneproof, utilizing impact-resistant finishes and panels that allow the project to withstand 146 mile-per-hour winds. (Walker’s other prefab developments have braved Florida’s last five hurricanes,
sustaining only minimal damage of roughly $80,000 total.)

[ fast facts ]
Lake Ida Church of Christ
■ Location: Delray, Fla.
■ Size: 15,000 square feet, including a 650-person sanctuary auditorium, six classrooms, and a 100-person multipurpose room/kitchen
■ Manufacturer: Butler Manufacturing Co. , a BlueScope Steel Co.
■ Developers: Walker Design & Construction and Building God’s Way
■ Value: $1.5 million
■ Status: Opened 2006

The pre-engineered pieces also allow for more open sanctuary space, eliminating the need for any interior load-bearing walls. Other structural efficiencies can be found in the CoreTech paneling produced by Butler. The church walls, which are 4 feet in width and vary in height, consist of foam paneling supported by corrugated steel and surrounded by insulation. Yielding nearly double values in thermal efficiency when compared with traditional buildings, CoreTech walls also provide better soundproofing.

“There are inherent insulation values because of the foam,” says Larry Klempnauer, senior area manager for Butler Manufacturing building systems in Florida. “They go up in panels, and they go up very
quickly.”

Smart Move-Eastern Illinois University students swap dorms for modular housing.

Once students set off for college, more often than not their living arrangements leave much to be desired. Can you say cramped dorm rooms with uncomfortable bunk beds and shared bathrooms? But lucky students at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill., won’t have to deal with such limitations.

University Village, a 36-acre community located roughly 1 mile from campus, offers much more than the traditional dormitory. The Village, which features 28 four-bedroom homes and 96 three-bedroom duplexes, promises all of the luxuries of home without the parents. Amenities include modern appliances, built-in desks, queen-sized beds, washers and dryers, as well as high-speed Internet access.

“We’re trying to create a student community,” says Cristian Galli, managing partner of Taurus of Chicago, the developer of University Village. “It’s the kind of living that students are used to when they’re coming from their homes.” And here’s the kicker: all 124 units are prefabricated off -site.

With the help of Elkhart, Ind.-based Patriot Homes, Galli and his associates set out to plan an extensive modular home development, complete with a clubhouse and fitness center. Why modular? For Taurus, no other construction method could compare. “I never even thought about it,” Galli says. “Modular is just much more efficient.”

Bryan Ender, Patriot Homes’ national director of builders and developers, agrees. Founded in 1972, Patriot Homes has specialized in modular and manufactured homes for the last three decades. Ender says that prefab developments not only go up faster but are often more structurally sound for a variety of reasons.

“It has its benefits because it’s built inside,” Ender says. “Nothing is ever left open to the elements.”

Prefab also has a leg up when it comes to adaptability. The design options for the University Village homes underwent numerous changes throughout the construction period. Thanks to the ease of working with prefab, it took the firm’s 15 engineers only two days to completely redraw an entire plan.

This, in turn, also affects the time required to construct the buildings. It took three weeks from the moment a house was ordered to the moment it arrived at University Village.

[ fast facts ]
University Village
■ Location: Charleston, Ill.
■ Size: 28 four-bedroom homes and 96 three-bedroom duplexes on 36 acres
■ Manufacturer: Patriot Homes
■ Developer: Taurus of Chicago
■ Value: Undisclosed
■ Status: Phase one opened in 2006; phase two opened in 2007

“Nobody could have finished one of these units in one month if they weren’t using modular,” Galli says. The single-family units arrived in one piece and were then set into foundations prepared by Taurus at a rate of two to three per day. The duplexes came in roughly four pieces—two box sets (the major frame of the house) and two front sets that included the porch and connecting unit. These homes were assembled on site and took about a day per installation.

The project took a little more than one year to complete—from March 2006 to November 2007. Since opening, it has been wildly popular with the students. With 83 percent of all units rented for the current school year, University Village has already leased 65 percent for the upcoming 2008 to 2009 academic year.

Perfect Zero- Prefab home nabs LEED Platinum honors.

Zero—that’s an important number to keep in mind when you assess LivingHomes’ 2006 “Model Home.” This Santa Monica home—the first residential home in the country to receive LEED Platinum certification—is a zero energy, zero water, zero waste, zero carbon, zero emissions residence. On top of that, the project is modular.

Eleven steel modules—12 feet tall, 12 feet wide, and roughly 30 feet long— serve as the prefab base for the home. The modules, shipped to the site on flatbed trucks, took only eight hours to assemble. Approximately 70 percent of the building was complete upon arrival, including all exterior walls, sub floors, and ceilings.

“Using prefab is better, quicker, cheaper, and leaves less of an ecological footprint,” says LivingHomes CEO and founder Steve Glenn. Glenn started the Santa Monica, Calif.-based development firm in 2005 to bring more environmentally friendly single- and multifamily residences to the market. Before piecing together the “Model Home,” Glenn had built only one other prefab home.

“There is a very large, unmet demand for homes that reflect the values of great design and products that are built in a healthy way,” says Glenn, who adds that the large contingent of people buying organic goods at Whole Foods and driving Priuses are now looking to expand that lifestyle to their homes. “Prefab is the way that we can most efficiently do this.”

The “Model Home” was built with 75 percent less construction waste, due almost entirely to the use of prefabricated components, Glenn says. Overall energy use for the home is roughly 80 percent more efficient than a traditional home thanks to multiple green features including solar water heating, radiant floors, and a water recycling system used to divert sink and shower water for irrigation. To design and build the same house traditionally, without using prefab, would have definitely cost more, Glenn says. “It’s a more effective way to build in general, regardless of the materials you use.”

[ fast facts ]
LivingHomes’ “Model Home”
■ Location: Santa Monica, Calif.
■ Size: 2,500-square-foot single-family residence
■ Manufacturer: Profile
■ Developer: LivingHomes
■ Value: $1.2 million (estimated)
■ Status: Opened 2006

Building on the success of the “Model Home,” Glenn looks to expand the brand nationally. “We’re continuing our effort to standardize the components in our living homes and to improve the production process,” he says. The company just introduced two new lines of homes based on the same building system as the “Model Home”—the multifamily townhouse and the new single-family expandable residence by Philadelphia-based architecture firm KiernanTimberlake.

The multifamily townhouse consists of two stories of living space on top of a ground-floor garage. Each townhouse can be attached or detached depending on the site, making the product a great option for infill developments. With a current price of $185 per square foot, the units are expected to drop to $135 per square foot as they become more widespread in the market. The expandable single-family unit will allow homes to go from 900 square feet to more than 2,000 square feet through the purchase of additional room modules that are assembled and attached on site.

The 2006 “Model Home”—now Glenn’s private residence—without a doubt served as a catalyst to bring environmentally-friendly modular living to the mass market.