N.Y. building shows how modular design stacks up as cool

NEW YORK In a city piled high with ambitious architecture, a seven-floor structure off the beaten path boasts a distinction: It's billed as the first multistory, modular-built apartment building to open in the nation's apartment capital.

Called the Stack, the building near Manhattan's northern tip aims to show that while stackable apartments can save builders time and money, modular doesn't have to mean monotonous. Its chunky front embraces its building-block roots, but the apartments' interiors defy their boxy components with varied floor plans and stylish fixtures and finishes.

Modular construction assembling a building from prefabricated sections instead of building from scratch on-site has been around for decades, but interest has grown recently around the country and in its biggest city. The world's tallest modular building, a 32-story apartment tower, is rising in Brooklyn.

Advocates say modular building can trim costs and timetables module factories don't have to worry about bad weather and make construction more consistent.

The technique presents special challenges, say, driving a 750-square-foot box over the George Washington Bridge, and not all projects have proven speedy. Some have faced pushback from labor interests, not to mention an image problem: The method is sometimes perceived as cheap and, well, cookie-cutter.

Pre-fab' and modular' have somewhat of a stigma associated with it, in some people's minds, whether it's appropriate or not, developer Jeffrey M. Brown said. But this approach can really produce cool buildings.

Modular apartment buildings date at least to Montreal's Habitat 67 complex, built for the 1967 World's Fair and still a desirable address.

Section-stacking construction is a rarity in the United States: about 1 percent of the market outside single-family homes, according to the Modular Building Institute, a trade association. Interest has grown in the past 20 years, however, as some developers embraced the efficiency of piecing together components that come complete with floors, electrical systems, appliances even towel bars to make apartments, hotels and hospitals.

New York City's Department of Buildings says 39 modular projects have at least submitted paperwork.

Among New York's next modular moves is a Manhattan micro-unit apartment building plan that won a city contest last year; the project is under way.

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N.Y. building shows how modular design stacks up as cool