Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens, NY

For New York City’s Build It Back Post-Sandy Reconstruction Program, Gans and Company completed over 100 homes that were modularly constructed in Pennsylvania factories. As part of our scope, we had staff “embedded” in these factories during the development, fabrication and then site installation of the modules. There was not one floor plan or system’s design that could meet homeowner needs, so we created a “playbook of variations.” We worked within the specific Build It Back standards and design constraints as charged; we also brought innovation to them, most significantly in the hybrid structural system of a steel deck that supports a wood framed house to meet local fire code. This hybrid system is also novel in terms of its production because modular factories do not typically combine wood and steel. The designs and specifications for these houses tread a careful line between considerations of future sustainability and current concerns with cost and efficiency. For an installation video click here.

These website images are from the recent exhibit of our project in Mass Support: Flexibility and Resident Agency in Housing. A joint venture of the Architectural League of New York and the Spitzer School, City College. It was accompanied by an international symposium you can view click here.

Client: Department of Design and Construction the City of New York, and 85+ homeowners

Project Team:

Gans and Company: Cristine Zubillaga, Jomana Baddad, Adam Achrati, Deborah Gans

Construction Management: SLS Co

Contracting and Modular Procurement: LMD / AMSAND

Structural Engineers: Cragnolin Design Engineers

Prefabricators: Simplex Homes, Pennkraft Building Systems, Modular Steel Systems, Swartfager Welding Inc, and Bay Crane