Trucks arrived at the Atlantic Yards in
Thursday carrying the first modules of what will become the tallest
prefabricated building in the world.
Coming from a factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the roughly
930 steel-framed boxes are the basic building blocks for Forest City
Ratner’s B2, an eco-friendly, 32-story tower with 363 rental units, half of
which will be reserved for low, moderate and middle-income families.
B2, which is expected to open in December 2014, is just one
of many high-profile prefab projects rolling into the city.
Many local developers are seizing on modular housing as a
way to get projects completed more quickly and efficiently. A shorter
construction window means tenants can move in faster, which helps cut financing
costs and reduces the impact on neighbors because there’s less noise, dust and
debris.
“We’re getting phone calls like crazy from developers who
see [prefab] as a panacea for the plumber who doesn’t show up or the
electrician who screws up everything,” said Peter Gluck of Gluck+.
If this isn’t a wake up call to developers that modular is the way to build, nothing is.
