Going Mod: Reducing Housing Costs in Philadelphia with Modular Construction
On Tuesday morning, March 23, the BIA of Philadelphia and the When We Fix It Coalition held a breakfast forum releasing a new report, "Going Mod: Reducing Housing Costs in Philadelphia with Modular Construction." The report was commissioned by the When We Fix It Coalition, a group of nonprofit and for-profit organizations in the city of Philadelphia (including the BIA).
Author Karen Black of May 8 Consulting presented the report's key findings:1. Modular construction significantly lowers the cost of construction in the city.
2. Constructing a house in Philadelphia costs substantially more than building an identical house in the suburbs.
3. Modular only provides costs savings in the suburbs when a singular modular box is used per floor. (The maximum width of a modular building unit that can be transported on Pennsylvania state highways is 16 feet, so that a 20-foot wide home would require two modules fastened on site.)
4. The four contractors' bids differed significantly for both stick-built and modular construction.
5. High finish costs charged by contractors lacking modular construction experience or by those who prefer stick-built construction can significantly reduce modular construction's cost efficiencies.
The forum ended with a panel of experts for a Q&A segment, including: Matt Koenig, AIA, of JKR Partners LLC who has worked on seven modular projects in the region; David Perlman, president of BIA Philadelphia and a developer with experience in both modular and stick-built construction; Paul Commito with AMC Delancey Group, hired to obtain accurate, objective cost estimates for the Going Mod report; Mark Durkalec, Business Agent, Carpenters Metropolitan Regional Council; and Charles Kasko of Signature Building Systems, a custom modular home builder with a factory in Moosic, Pennsylvania.