Now that the Barclays Center is practically open, it's time to direct our attention behind the arena and the planned pre-fab towers that Forest City Ratner plans on building at the Atlantic Yards. The first building is a 32-story tower comprised of 930 separate modular units that will be manufactured elsewhere and assembled on site. If all goes well, that might just be the first of 15 modular-built towers, according to Crain's, with the highest one reaching 50 stories. That's tall, and almost as up in the air as the question of whether any of them will be built.
To avoid the boxy Lego-like appearance normally associated with modular housing, the designs for the first tower include setbacks and 24 different apartment layouts that require 225 different module designs. Manufacturing of the modules will place in a factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, much like the one already operated by Capsys, a separate modular housing fabrication company.
A faster build time at lower costs is great for Forest City, but means fewer jobs at lower pay on a project that was sold to the public as a big jobs generator for Brooklyn. Forest City maintains that this will help it successfully develop a project with a high number of units pledged to affordable housing. It probably also won't hurt the project's bottom line.
· Legoland Comes to Brooklyn [Crain's]
· Atlantic Yards coverage [Curbed]
· Revenge of the Megaprojects [Curbed]
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