Ratner Tests Modular Tower Construction

Forest City Ratner will break ground Dec. 18 for the first of 15 residential and office towers planned as part of the controversial Atlantic Yards complex, at Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street, The New York Times reported. The company plans to use modular construction for all 15 towers, and has been testing the prefab engineering for months at the Navy Yard. If it works, the 32-story tower will be the tallest prefab building in the world. That record is currently held by a 25-story dormitory in Britain. It is unusual for prefab structures to go higher than 10 stories, since the cost of steel bracing against wind and quakes is prohibitive. The modular process could cut the number of construction workers employed by the project by more than 50 percent, estimated Norman Oder of the Atlantic Yards Report.
At Atlantic Yards, Ready to Test Plans for Pre-Fab Tower [NY Times]
Forest City Ready to Test Construction; Times Doesn’t Point out Jobs Likely Cut 50 Percent [AYR]
SHoP Confirms Modular Design for Atlantic Yards Tower [Brownstoner]
Rendering by SHoP via Architect’s Newspaper