Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - In a city piled high with ambitious architecture, a seven-floor structure off the beaten path boasts a distinction of its own: It's billed as the first multistory, modular-built apartment building to open in the nation's apartment capital.

Called the Stack, the building near Manhattan's northern tip aims to show that while stackable apartments can save builders time and money, modular doesn't have to mean monotonous. Its chunky front embraces its building-block roots, but the apartments' interiors defy their boxy components with varied floor plans and stylish fixtures and finishes.

Modular construction - assembling a building from prefabricated sections instead of building from scratch on-site - has been around for decades, but interest has grown recently around the country and in its biggest city. The world's tallest modular building, a 32-story apartment tower, is rising in Brooklyn.

Advocates say modular building can trim costs and timetables - module factories don't have to worry about bad weather - and make construction more consistent. Still, the technique presents special challenges (say, driving a 750-square-foot box over the George Washington Bridge), and not all projects have proven speedy. Some have faced pushback from labor interests, not to mention an image problem: The method is sometimes perceived as cheap and, well, cookie-cutter.

"'Pre-fab' and 'modular' have somewhat of a stigma associated with it, in some people's minds, whether it's appropriate or not," developer Jeffrey M. Brown said. But "this approach can really produce cool buildings."

Some key facts about modular buildings (in stackable form):

THE LAY OF THE LAND

Modular apartment buildings date at least to Montreal's Habitat 67 complex, built for the 1967 World's Fair and still a desirable address. Section-stacking construction is still a relatively rarity in the U.S.: about 1 percent of the overall market outside single-family homes, according to the Modular Building Institute, a trade association. But interest has grown in the last 20 years, as some developers embraced the efficiency of piecing together components that come complete with floors, electrical systems, appliances - even towel bars - to create apartments, hotels, hospitals and more. New York City's Department of Buildings says 39 modular projects have at least submitted paperwork.

HOW THE STACK WORKS

Read more here:
NY building shows how mod design stacks up as cool - Quincy Herald-Whig | Illinois & Missouri News, Sports

Tony Lane, insolvency and reconstruction senior manager at chartered accountants firm Vincents, in Wright. Photo: Graham Tidy

An estimated 114 building and construction-related companies have gone to the wall in Canberra since the start of last year, leaving behind more than $80 million in debts, Australian Securities and Investments Commission data has revealed.

With the downturn in the building, home improvement and renovation sector expected to worsen as public servants remain uncertain about their futures, ACT insolvency specialists say the snowballing "tsunami" of economic pain documented in wind-up notices on the ASIC website wont end soon.

All things being equal we would generally expect an increase in insolvency appointments during such a period (as this), Tony Lane, the senior manager for insolvency and reconstruction with accountants Vincents,told Fairfax.

He warns "larger and larger entities" are likely to fail as the impact of liquidations and unpaid debt cascades through the sector.

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The collapse of one company leaving unpaid debts often will push others over the brink.

(Businesses) most exposed are those with poor and outdated systems, poor or non-existent cost controls, out-of-date service delivery mechanisms, inefficient work practices and poor cash flow, Mr Lane said.

Michael Slaven,of the insolvency firm Kazar Slaven,said he did not expect the rate of company collapses to increase but he wasnt expecting it to slow either.

Kazar Slaven has handled almost 30 per cent of the building and construction-related insolvencies in the ACT over the past 18 months.

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Tough times in building trades won't end soon, experts say

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