7-Story Shipping Container Condo in Utah
It’s been three days since our last post but it was a great memorial day break for us - we hope you don’t mind.
A new seven-story condo complex made of recycled steel cargo containers is set for construction sometime next year and should be completed in March 2009. The City Center Lofts project will occupy the former site of the 337 Project, a graffiti-covered building that was part of a grass-roots public art venture giving 150 artists a blank canvas to work on. Although this building will be demolished to make way for the modular lofts, developer Adam Price says that his new project will reflect the spirit of 337 by creating gallery space and panels for artists’ murals on the face of the building.
The United States imports more goods than it exports and because it is cheaper to manufacture new containers overseas than send them back empty, millions of surplus containers sit gathering rust all across America. The City Center Lofts will not only showcase this beautiful and elegant post-industrial aesthetic, but it will also be constructed from 50% recycled material by weight.
The project will contain eight residential condo units, one of which will be a penthouse. Stacked on alternating stories with steel-and-glass frames inbetween, the units will be three containers wide (24 feet) and will feature finished walls and concrete floors with radiant heating. Sustainable features include: high-efficiency air-to-air exchanger, natural ventilation, non-toxic materials and a green roof.
The design team behind the City Center Lofts is lead by New Jersey architect Adam Kalkin whose work has been described in a New York Times profile as “somewhere between performance art and architecture.” His firm, Quick-Build, manufactures 2,000-square-foot, prefab container homes for $184,000.
Shipping container construction has great potential to increase the supply of affordable housing units in our cities. The question for the City Center Lofts is will the affordability be transferred to the home buyer? I guess we will have to wait and see what the developer sells them for.
Source: ZeroCabin
