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Dallas Bans Pre-fab Housing
Architectural Record ^ | December 13, 2004 | Ingrid Spencer

Posted on 12/15/2004 4:50:26 PM PST by Lorianne

In an effort to keep low-quality manufactured houses from being built in Dallas neighborhoods, the Dallas City Council approved a policy prohibiting the placement of prefabricated housing on properties sold by the city of Dallas for deed-restricted affordable housing.

According to Doug Dykman, assistant director of housing for the City of Dallas, the measure passed without opposition. “It was brought to the floor, everyone agreed, and it passed,” he says.

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At a time when the design media, along with a growing group of architects and design enthusiasts have been looking towards modular housing as a way to offer modern homes to a clientele who appreciate modern design but can’t typically afford an architect-built home, this new policy has generated waves.

“It’s ironic that Dallas would do this at the same time other cities are embracing quality prefab as a solution to affordable housing,” says Michael Sylvester, editor of fabprefab.com, a Web site dedicated to promoting modern modular design. Sylvester cites the University of Kansas’s design/build studio, Studio804, and its latest project, Modular1, as a case where a group worked with the city and accomplished a prefab program that offers an inexpensive, well-designed modular housing option.

According to Studio804’s leader, Dan Rockhill, the Modular1 project could never have been accomplished without an advocate at City Hall. In Rockhill’s case it was Scott Murray, an urban planner in Kansas City, Kansas. Murray convinced several city groups that the Modular1 project was a unique solution. He agrees that it wasn’t easy, and having access to the internal departments was crucial. “Without someone working from inside the city to promote these types of projects,” says Murray, “it’s like pushing a rope uphill. Most people think prefab housing means cheap mobile homes. It takes something as thought-out and high-quality as the Modular1 project to change their minds


TOPICS: Local News
KEYWORDS: architecture; housing; landuse; propertyrights; zoning

1 posted on 12/15/2004 4:50:27 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

This reminds me of a 1945 song with the stanza, "We'll settle down near Dallas, in a little plastic palace; Oh it's not as crazy as you think."


2 posted on 12/15/2004 4:53:17 PM PST by ross_poldark
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To: msdrby

PING


3 posted on 12/15/2004 4:55:07 PM PST by Professional Engineer (All wisdom is from the Lord, and with him it remains forever. ~ Ecclesiasticus 1.1)
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To: Lorianne

Doug Dykman? He must be very frustrated.


4 posted on 12/15/2004 4:57:56 PM PST by blackdog (May Islam meet Tennyson's "Ninth Wave" in my lifetime.)
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To: Lorianne
Just another effort by Dallas to keep out the riff-raff.

Never worked before. Won't work now.

5 posted on 12/15/2004 5:03:46 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: Lorianne
Frank Lloyd Wright had some very cool prefabs in the early 1900's. They were comprised of concrete panels with overlapping joints, a slab floor, and a single concrete formed roof which captured the upright outer walls, holding the whole shabang tight. My parents sold the one they had in 1964 for $12,000. Today it sells for a few hundred grand. That was before Wright was rediscovered.

Construction estimates based on today's costs excluding the land it's built on, would be around $30,000 complete if reproductions were tooled up for with new forms and molds. That's with wiring, plumbing, kitchen, and garage too. The homes are hurricane proof and almost double as bomb shelters since the walls are 12" thick reinforced concrete.

Traditional housing construction in America is about to go thru a renaisance. Those old concrete homes of Wright's are going to be standing tall a thousand years from now. I think stone and brick as actual structure and not just facing is going to return. Match stick housing is a joke.

6 posted on 12/15/2004 5:09:36 PM PST by blackdog (May Islam meet Tennyson's "Ninth Wave" in my lifetime.)
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To: blackdog

wazup with metal framing?


7 posted on 12/15/2004 5:12:05 PM PST by bigsigh
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To: blackdog

The peoples republic knows what is best for the masses!!


8 posted on 12/15/2004 5:15:48 PM PST by southland (Send the UN to Israel so they can understand terrorism!!)
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To: blackdog

That's true. Pre-fab panelized systems are much more structurally sound that typical baloon-frame construction.


9 posted on 12/15/2004 5:21:01 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne
There must not be any prefab manufacturing companies in Dallas. Probably all in Houston.

Won't survive an ACLU suit.

10 posted on 12/15/2004 5:27:13 PM PST by bayourod (Our troops are already securing our borders against terrorists. They're killing them in Iraq.)
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To: Lorianne

Well, snooty-snoot-snoot to them.

Where I live, the rich get ahold of a chunk of land that is so expensive the hobbledehoy couldn't afford a lot there. Then they build their mansions and don't have to worry about zoning out the, you know, filthy little commoners.


11 posted on 12/15/2004 5:38:04 PM PST by GretchenM (What we do know has been filtered through the Old Media in large part.)
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To: bigsigh
I've seen that lately in residential housing on even exterior walls! That used to be solely for commercial construction and only interior walls.

To build a true stacked stone home, over 80,000 stones must be split. The foundation footings must be able to withstand several tons per inch and be at least three feet wide. That said, that home will still be standing five hundred years later. It's interior may have been gutted and redone many times over, but the structure itself will last forever.

Wright noticed the labor intensive cost/benefit ratio of such massive structures and thought correctly that the same immortal dwelling could be built using more modern, but not expensive technology. The possibilities today are endless. I like the idea of concrete panels on slabs. Panels could be doubled up with foam pumped into the gap for insulation. The ductwork could be formed inside the walls. PVC pipes as conduit for wiring would be part of the roof slab with service coming from above. As long as any residential fire does not exceed the softening point of the rebar in the roof, even fire will not destroy such a home. Just gut it, clean it, and reappoint it. Interior walls are just cosmetic.

12 posted on 12/15/2004 5:42:35 PM PST by blackdog (May Islam meet Tennyson's "Ninth Wave" in my lifetime.)
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To: blackdog

a friend of mine is building spec homes and he is paying $80 per sq ft. He thinks he can lower that and have a better house with metal. In his way to Mexico (shhhh) to visit a factory.


13 posted on 12/15/2004 5:48:09 PM PST by bigsigh
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To: blackdog
You can buy a dome-home from a company in Florida. It's made up of concrete, foam and walboard triangular shaped panels. Their biggest one is 60 ft wide, and can hold 4 stories inside!

None of the dome-homes in Florida were damaged by the hurricanes.

14 posted on 12/15/2004 5:49:42 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: blackdog

Are the 77 million baby boomers going to live in $500,000 houses on their average Social Security checks of $1000/mo?


15 posted on 12/15/2004 5:50:01 PM PST by ClaireSolt (.)
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To: Lorianne

I've seen rough poured panel walls with masonry tabs and the footings leaving an eight inch outside lip for stone facing. A crew of stone guys can stone face the house in a week. The result is indistinguishable from stack stone walls three feet thick from the outside. A nice green enameled, seam folded, steel roof is quite attractive. No need for slate, asphalt, copper, or tile. The steel looks super. A guy near me even built a systern about a hundred feet from the house for his non-pottable water needs which represent about 95% of the water consumed in a household. Why chlorinate and treat 100% of your water when 95% bypasses consumption and goes right into the sewer! The rainwater needs no softening either. All his gutters dump into a main pipe which runs downhill to the tank. He had a frog problem for a while until he screened over his overflow vent. It holds 8,000 gallons. He used an old milk truck stainless bulk tank. His grey water from showers, bathing, dishes, and such goes right back out into another tank he uses for watering his garden. If it gets too full he just lets it spill over. It's not sewage so who cares?


16 posted on 12/15/2004 6:02:03 PM PST by blackdog (May Islam meet Tennyson's "Ninth Wave" in my lifetime.)
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To: ClaireSolt

I dunno. I've watched suburban sprawl and driven down mortgage rates put a lot of people into big pricey homes who cannot really afford them. I see a complete collapse of the housing sector in the next decade. The sooner the better IMHO. Do away with tax deuctability of mortgage interest too. You'll see housing prices drop back to affordable levels and the murderous desire to "pull equity" out of your home because you just needed to have a new house, and a hot tub, and a jet ski, and a bass boat, and a summer cottage to get away from the home in order to destress over all the debt you racked up by pulling equity out of your home.


17 posted on 12/15/2004 6:09:51 PM PST by blackdog (May Islam meet Tennyson's "Ninth Wave" in my lifetime.)
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To: blackdog

Boy that sounds great. I've always wanted to build a stone house. I also like standing seam metal roofs (they are also outlawed in many HOA regulations). Metal roofs with clip systems survive hurrican winds very well, provided they are greater than 4:12 pitch.


18 posted on 12/15/2004 6:14:19 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne
Stone construction is greatly dependent on geography. Places like Philadelphia have perfect stone which does not need to be split or cut. Here where I live in Wisconsin, there is plenty of field stone but they need to be cut and split. I figured the best way to test my resolve was to build some dry-stacked walls around my garden to keep out any livestock that got loose. It took me three years of splitting stone to build 200 feet of wall, 3' high and four corners. The cap I did in slate. I came to the conclusion that on hard stone like here, it would take me about 15 years to cut/split enough stone to build a true stone home.

Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame spends most of his time building dry stacked walls for people in Italy. He's a genius at it. I once got to admire his handiwork when on a trip there. I photograph the stone dwellings in any town any time I see a different stone type or construction style.

19 posted on 12/16/2004 6:43:15 AM PST by blackdog (May Islam meet Tennyson's "Ninth Wave" in my lifetime.)
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