The Stack 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. It finds opportunity on a small, difficult urban site by taking advantage of offsite construction methods. Offsite construction offers an accelerated schedule and shorter financing period, turning sites that might otherwise be considered risky and turning them into opportunities.
Although not necessary to this construction methodology, the design of this 7-storey residential building expresses its modular construction. Each individual modular unit is legible but also reads as part of a knit-together whole. A common misconception of "modular" construction is that the units are products; each one containing a complete apartment of a specific design. In fact "offsite" construction is simply an alternate construction method. The building is designed according to its needs and then "cut" into pieces that can be fabricated in the factory and then transported and erected in its intended location.
This is the first prefabricated steel and concrete multi-unit residential building to be erected in New York City. 28 apartments (6 studios, 6 one-bedrooms, 14 two-bedrooms, 2 three-bedrooms) are built with 56 complete factory-finished modules prefabricated offsite. 5,000 SF of infrastructure and foundations were built on site, in the same first three months that 28,000 SF, 6 stories of building, were simultaneously assembled in the factory. A steel column grid structure was built on top of a poured-in-place concrete foundation to receive the stacked modules, and is designed to allow for wider clear spans for commercial leasing on the first floor. The two came together in a four week period of installation. The entire building process is a 9-11 month period, less than the typical 15 to 16 if built with traditional construction methods.
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