Offsite Construction
Residents in our region face unprecedented challenges in finding and keeping homes they can afford. Rising rents continue to displace people further from their communities and push our most disenfranchised neighbors into homelessness.
Underproduction of affordable housing continues in the face of increasing material, land, and labor costs, yet we have limited resources to invest in affordable housing. The Washington State Department of Commerce estimates we will need 1 million more homes over the next 20 years. The shortfall of affordable homes has been decades in the making and the problem can’t be solved overnight.
This sustained growth in housing need means we must double down on proven strategies and create new breakthroughs.
Our Vision
King County is experiencing a crisis in equitable access to housing that is safe, healthy, and affordable. At first glance, the response seems simple: create more housing faster. But a response is only a true solution if it doesn’t sacrifice quality for quantity, ignore sustainability mandates, or increase the already high cost of housing in our region.
Motivated by the urgency of the crisis and the possibilities of these methods, the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County (HDC) formed the Offsite Construction Task Force (OCTF). This is a powerful collaboration of both experience and passion, merging the expertise of both market-rate and affordable housing developers who, until now, have tackled these projects independently of each other. OCTF provides these collaborators with both industry and research support and equips them to address permitting and construction, financing and procurement, municipal codes, and public myths.
The affordable housing need in Washington State is staggering and increasing every day. Recent estimates on the state’s housing shortfall from the Department of Commerce show that we will need 1 million more homes over the next 20 years. This has forced families to move further from employment and other opportunities which negatively impacts their health a wellbeing and increases carbon emissions which exacerbates climate change.
This sustained growth in housing need means we must double down on proven strategies and create new breakthroughs.
Grass roots advocates, city staff, and elected officials statewide are working to allow more housing to be built in more places; however, even if the challenges of land use policy and funding are addressed, the state lacks the capacity to construct housing at the pace and quantity the crisis demands.
A solution to this capacity shortfall is offsite, prefabricated modular construction which has the potential to decrease construction cost and time.
While modular prefab has existed for decades it has yet to be embraced at scale. There are currently no large-scale modular prefab plants in Washington State. The Offsite Construction Task Force (OCTF) seeks to support the development of a plant in Washington State and significantly expand the construction of prefabricated modular affordable housing, while concurrently providing construction job training and economic development in areas of the state that have yet to benefit from economic expansion.
What is Offsite Construction?
- Offsite construction involves the process of planning, designing, fabricating, transporting and assembling building elements for rapid site assembly to a greater degree of finish than in traditional piecemeal on-site construction.
- Offsite building includes a range of materials, scales and systems, digital software, methods of manufacture and fabrication, and innovations in social and technological integration.
- Offsite outputs include componentized, panelized, and modularized elements deployed in the service of structural, enclosure, service and interior partition systems.
- An optimizing strategy of off-site is to integrate these systems and supply chain through research, design, testing, and prototyping.
Differentiating Types of Offsite Construction Methods
Modular
The building is constructed of separate box-like modules which are transported and assembled onsite to form a whole. The modules are transported on flatbed trucks, craned into place and pieced together on-site. This could also include the use of “wet-cores” that can be blended with conventional on-site construction or panelized wall sections.
Relocatable
This is for temporary space needs including job site trailers, temporary classrooms, communication pods, and showrooms. More recently cities are looking to use modular construction to provide short-term housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness. Units are set on underutilized property and can be relocated after initial use.
Permanent
These can be multi-story residential, government buildings, hospitals and healthcare facilities, schools, and hotels. There is increasing interest in building multi-family residential buildings where feasible using modular construction.
Panel Built
This is accomplished by setting the floor structure and then separately placing each section of the wall atop it. The wall panels can be both structural enclosing walls and non-load bearing partitions. This system is common in commercial prefabricated buildings as it allows for wide-open spaces and high ceilings. “Panelization” is typically done in factories but some builders have set up the ability to panelize wall sections near the installation site. Sometimes special wall panels comprised of “MEPS” are used.
Manufactured
This type of offsite construction is built on a steel frame, shipped on its own wheels, and then set on a concrete foundation or pier blocks. In some cases, the wheels that got the house to the build site aren’t even removed, just covered up with side skirting. These may or may not be located in “manufactured housing communities” which were once sometimes called mobile home parks.
Best Practice Library
HDC compiles project profiles for inclusion in our Best Practice Library with the goal of showcasing high-level data on projects utilizing offsite construction strategies and make the case for the performance of modular methods. If you would like your project included in our library, please download the profile template, fill in the prompts with your project data, and return to Loren Tierney.
- Nashville, TN
- Portland, OR
- New York, NY
- Los Angeles, CA
- Renton, WA
- San Francisco, CA
- Detroit, MI
- Philadelphia, PA
Offsite Construction Task Force
Grace Kim
- Schemata Workshop
- Task Force Co-Chair
- Grace has practiced architecture in Chicago and Seattle for nearly 30 years. She is a co-founding principal of Schemata Workshop, a Seattle-based architectural firm with a keen focus on community and social equity. Her clients include public housing authorities, non-profit housing developers, and social service providers. Grace has been a long-time champion of modular construction as one solution to quickly produce high-quality multifamily housing. In 2014, she completed the first affordable, multifamily, volumetric modular-construction project in Western Washington. She serves on the Board of Directors for the HDC as Vice President as well as the Puget Sound Regional Council’s TOD Task Force.
Matt Laase
- Jackson Main Architecture, P.S.
- Task Force Co-Chair
- With an extensive career spanning over 25 years as a licensed architect, Matt has solidified his standing as a respected figure in the commercial, retail, and multi-family sectors. His deep knowledge of construction issues and ability to provide valuable solutions make him a crucial resource to any join effort. Matt is committed to delivering quality in all aspects of his work and is particularly adept at providing architectural design solutions, project management, and interdisciplinary consultant coordination.
Rick Mohler
- UW College of Built Environments
- Task Force Co-Chair
- Rick Mohler, FAIA, NCARB is a licensed architect and Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington where he leverages synergies between his teaching, research, practice, and advocacy to promote just, policy-driven cities, shaped by principled design, addressing all scales of urban experience while building connections between the academy, profession, government, and community. His students have been recognized twenty times in regional, national and international student design competitions and awards programs. As co-chair of the Seattle Planning Commission, which advises the Mayor and City Council on issues of land use, housing and transportation, Rick is leading the commission’s efforts to revise Seattle’s inequitable growth strategy in the current major update to the city’s Comprehensive Plan.
Justin Stewart
- Synergy, Inc.
- Task Force Co-Chair
- Justin leads Synergy Inc. as CEO with a commitment to operational excellence and developing innovative solutions to industry problems. Under Justin’s direction, the company launched Synergy Modular, Inc. to solve the cost and trade shortage issue prevalent industry wide. By partnering with offsite suppliers to provide full modular construction services, they are able to offer a single source contract for turn-key buildings with a fixed cost in 40-50% less time. Justin’s extensive knowledge and expertise of the construction trades come from both growing up in the family business and the depth of experience gained over the last 25 years in the industry.
Loren Tierney
- Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County
- HDC Staff Liaison
- As Deputy Director, Loren provides overall direction for the HDC’s member services program, implementing a comprehensive member and business development agendas, and creating programming for HDC’s wide array of membership, including support of the Offsite Construction Task Force, the Exemplary Building Program and the Practical Development Solutions Affinity Group.
Our Partners
Thank you to our strategic allies supporting this effort alongside HDC.
