Huge Apartment Tower Being Built in a Factory

The corner of Dean Street and Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn is actually being built two miles away. In a factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Forest City Ratner is creating the building blocks for the tallest pre-fabricated residence in the world, a 322-foot tower whose frame is already rising next to the Barclays Center at the Atlantic Yards. The plant is cranking out modules that will be snapped together to create the first building.

Modular construction is a game-changer, thanks to 25% savings over traditional construction methods, greater speed and efficiency, and even better conditions for workers.

“We really think this will change everything about the way we build,” said Bob Sanna, executive vice-president for construction at Forest City Ratner.

"The safety is huge,” said a worker. “We’re not on top of each other, 20 stories in the air.”

And the building goes up faster because work at the construction site and the factory happen at the same time. There are no weather delays, and the finished modules simply get trucked over to the building as needed.  [see ElectricWeb | Blogger, Dec 24, 2012]

“It really speeds up the process,” Sanna said. “The carpenter’s never waiting around for the electrician to do his job. They’re always working.”

“A lot of projects that would otherwise be unfeasible or too expensive could now get built,” he said.

Forest City Ratner is earning kudos as a modular pioneer as it quickly finishes its first Atlantic Yards building.  [see ElectricWeb | Blogger, May 6, 2012]



And yet for all the innovation, the modular factory looks like any other construction site, with welders, carpenters and drywall workers building apartments as they might outdoors — except their 930 modules will end up being configured into 363 units, from studios to three-bedroom, depending on how many modules are fused.

[see ElectricWeb | Blogger, August 2, 2013]

[see ElectricWeb | Blogger, Sept 11, 2012]

“This is the future,” said a construction worker at the site. “I wanted to get in on the ground floor.”

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