Here's something a little different on the home-building front: We took photos of a prefab home being put together this morning in Newport Beach.
We're not talking double-wide prefab, but rather a sustainably designed modular home by LivingHomes, a developer based in Santa Monica. The house is "poised to become Orange County's first LEED Platinum Certified Home, the nationally accepted third-party benchmark for the highest-performing green buildings," LivingHomes said in its news release.
The two-story residence came in four preconstructed modules, which were hoisted into place by a 250-ton crane. The design, intended for small, urban lots, is being offered for sale nationwide at $275 a square foot installed, not including the foundation or land. The model, called the LHKT 1.5, was designed by Philadelphia architecture firm KieranTimberlake.
The 2,200-square-foot home has two bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and a bonus room. The features that the developer has piled on to qualify for the LEED Platinum certification include recycled steel, recycled wood and bamboo siding, recycled glass tiles, photovoltaic panels, high-performance windows with recycled frames and low-flow bathroom fixtures and gray-water plumbing.
After a few hours, the home was 95% complete. The owners are expected to move into the house in about a month, LivingHomes said.
-- Nancy Rivera Brooks
Photos: It doesn't look like much yet, but the module being hoisted into place will become part of a prefab green home in Newport Beach. Credit: Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times
This is really great and that people are going for Prefab houses. I would say such houses have their own pros and cons. But at present these houses are reasonable to other houses.
Posted by: Best CD Rates | November 06, 2009 at 10:36 AM
I am glad to see another modular home builder on the west coast, especially one taking a serious look at efficiency and cost cutting. I had never heard of LivingHome prior to reading this article. After looking around their website it looks like they have great looking designs that are cost conscious, functional and green.
Posted by: Modular Home Choice | November 08, 2009 at 05:41 PM
All this really is just a fancy mobile home, there goes the neighborhood.
Posted by: thetruthurts | November 09, 2009 at 07:15 AM
very cool. i am a huge fan of Living Homes after driving by their model home in Santa Monica and subsequent research. i just wish the pricing would come down overall as their homes designed by Ray Kappe start around $325 PSF.
Posted by: Very Cool | November 09, 2009 at 01:29 PM
325k for a glorified mobile home that you record title thru the the DMV and not an escrow/title company?? :)What a joke, who does this Ray Kappe think he is?
Posted by: laughing hyena | November 09, 2009 at 02:29 PM