THE STACK in New York City; Photo Credit: newyork-architects.com

THE STACK Modular Housing in New York City

In a city where it is not easy to find affordable housing, stack modular housing may be a possible solution. In an article published by ArchDaily, “This is the first prefabricated steel and concrete multi-unit residential building to be erected in New York City. Twenty-eight residential units (6 studios, 6 one-bedrooms, 14 two-bedrooms, 2 three-bedrooms) were built with fifty-six complete factory-finished modules prefabricated offsite. While 5000 square feet of infrastructure and foundations were being built on site, 6 stories of the building equalling 28,000 square feet were simultaneously being completed in the factory — all in the same first three months of the project. A steel column grid structure was built on top of a poured-in-place concrete foundation to receive the stacked modules. The two came together in a four-week period of installation. Altogether, it took 6 months less time than if built with traditional construction methods.”

THE STACK, built in 2014, addresses the need for moderate-income housing in Manhattan. It finds opportunity on a small, difficult urban site through the alternative method of offsite construction. Offsite construction offers an accelerated schedule and shorter financing period, turning sites that might otherwise be considered risky and turning them into opportunities. It is a pilot project for developing a quality and economically viable housing solution to strategically rebuilding and filling gaps in outmoded housing infrastructure in the city. (Source: newyork-architects.com)

According to CURBED NY, “Over the course of just 10 months, New York City’s first building made entirely of modular units came together. Developers Jeffrey Brown and Kim Frank, along with the creative architecture firm Gluck+, took a 50-foot-wide, 150-foot-deep site on Broadway near an area called the ‘Cloisters’ and loaded 56 modules into it in only 19 days, stacking them —in a manner that handily produced time-lapse videos —into two seven-story structures with one unified facade that surround a central courtyard.”

After touring the Pennsylvania warehouse where the modules were constructed, Curbed remarked, “The quarter-mile-long assembly line custom-equipped each of the 56 rectangular prisms with everything from toilet paper roll holders and mirrors to kitchen cabinets and countertops, all constructed into position hundreds of miles away based on the module’s final destination in its intended apartment.”

Within the overall construction industry, modular buildings are trending. Check out our blog post from last week with details. Exhibitors that supply materials to modular building contractors will be on hand at METALCON, October 21 – 23 in Las Vegas. REGISTER today.