

New York's Newest Skyscraper Is 32 Floors of Prefab Apartments - nols
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3020237/new-yorks-newest-skyscraper-is-32-floors-of-prefab-apartments-that-click-together

======
Animats
Maybe this works because they're building apartments so tiny they can be
carried on a truck.

There's a more successful concept - prefab bathrooms and modular kitchens. See
"ameripod.com" (bathrooms). This reduces on-site labor on the parts of the
building that are labor-intensive. It's much cheaper to build a bathroom in a
factory, install it as a unit, and plug it in. In a factory, you can hold
tolerances and all the parts fit. Bathrooms are a convenient size for trucking
purposes, too. Moving standard-width loads is cheap and routine.

Making the exterior walls part of the module means more exterior seams.
Building shells aren't expensive. Steelwork and exterior walls go up fast.
Building steel and concrete boxes is a solved problem. Most of the time and
money go into interior details.

------
hapless
They failed to mention that this project is close to _two years_ behind.

The modular construction project has been such an abject failure that the
other two building projects on the site have broken ground with conventional
steel frame construction.

------
liminal
A comment on the article page links to a description of how construction
stalled on recriminations of flawed designs and construction problems:

[http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.ca/2014/09/in-dispute-
ov...](http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.ca/2014/09/in-dispute-over-stalled-
modular-tower.html)

~~~
ankushnarula
It's true - and work resumed shortly after that.
[http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-
hall/2014/11/8556...](http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-
hall/2014/11/8556922/after-agreement-work-resume-atlantic-yards-tower)

------
olidb2
I live across of it, and I have to say it has the grace you'd expect of a 60's
housing project in the eastern bloc. The rendering is quite flattering.

~~~
mtalantikite
I also live a couple blocks from it and the only upside is that it'll
eventually block the rusty looking Barclays Center from view. I'd gladly take
the old Freddy's back.

~~~
bluthru
I really enjoy the rich tones of the facade: [http://www.rew-online.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/04/Barclay...](http://www.rew-online.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/04/Barclays-Center-SHoP-main.jpg)

Does rust automatically turn people off because of cultural connotations? It's
self-finishing, already appears established, and doesn't require maintenance.

~~~
schrodinger
Rust doesn't require maintenance? It will keep going until the underlying
steel is all gone - not really something you can just let go.

As opposed to aluminum oxide which is self limiting - it only forms a thin
layer, then stops.

~~~
woodchuck64
Barclay is
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weathering_steel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weathering_steel)

------
joezydeco
For background, here's some info on Walt Disney World's Contemporary Resort
(1971) that was built with a similar technique:

[http://www.yesterland.com/contemporary.html](http://www.yesterland.com/contemporary.html)

------
breckinloggins
"Imagine a future where..."

I guess everything old is new again.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier)

~~~
delucain
From around the same time period:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilton_Palacio_del_Rio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilton_Palacio_del_Rio)

------
mc32
I'm on a phone so didn't fig into the differences which must be huge but china
has built a few large projects using prefab techniques and keep breaking time
to complete records. Example [http://inhabitat.com/200-chinese-workers-
erect-a-30-storey-p...](http://inhabitat.com/200-chinese-workers-
erect-a-30-storey-prefabricated-hotel-in-just-15-days-video/)

~~~
notahacker
Main difference as far as I can see is the NYC structure is made up of pre-
assembled room-size room-size units, whereas the Chinese hotel is more
conventional beams, panels and cladding but pre-cut to specific sizes (and
presumably also for the interior finish)

The Chinese seem to be trying to prove a point with their speed, though they
do have a considerable advantage when it comes to costs and lack of
regulations to adhere too though, probably aren't building to the [unusual]
level of tolerances specified for the US project.

(my dad was doing this back in the days when 9 storeys was "possibly the
tallest of its type in the world", and under a year for a building that size
was really fast. Which really wasn't all that long ago.)

------
brokentone
Serious question, what makes this the "newest" skyscraper? There are various
buildings that are more and less complete than this one.

~~~
delucain
Journalistic flair?

------
LukeB_UK
My Dad has worked in the modular construction industry since before I was born
and it's quite an interesting method.

It allows things to be done at the same time, so whilst the groundwork and any
preparation is being done on site, the modules for the building can be being
built in a factory.

It's a fairly popular method in the UK, whether it's constructed entirely
modularly or using modular parts like bathroom pods (prefabricated bathrooms).

The uses are fairly varied too, it's been used for hotel bathrooms, prison
cells, McDonalds restaurants, sections of Tesco supermarkets, petrol station
shops, hospitals and schools. I've probably missed a few, but you get the
idea.

It's very weird to step into a bathroom pod when it's at the end of the
production line and hooked up to water and electricity for testing. When you
shut the door, you'd have no idea that you were in a factory (besides the
noise) .

------
greggman
A giant project like this just opened in LA, One Santa Fe

[http://www.onesantafeliving.com/](http://www.onesantafeliving.com/)

The place looks huge from a distance because it's so long

[https://www.google.com/search?q=one+santa+fe+apartments&tbm=...](https://www.google.com/search?q=one+santa+fe+apartments&tbm=isch)

But, I went in to look at the apartments and they're boring as hell which is
sad because they're in the LA Arts District which is full of amazing lofts
(similar to SF's SOMA District).

------
jzwinck
I got a laugh out of this:

> the kind of line assembly popularized by Henry Ford's T-Birds

Henry Ford never saw the T-bird (Thunderbird): he died eight years before it
was released. Of course the author meant the Model T, but that such an error
about a major milestone in American history slipped through editing is pretty
amazing--like crediting William Boeing with the invention of the airplane.

