Google’s Interest in Modular Housing Sparked KCBS Radio’s Stan & Susan to Ask:
“Is Modular Construction the Answer to the Housing Problem?”
Listen to the Interview (4:13):
On Wednesday, June 14th, Google owner Alphabet Inc. announced plans to buy 300 apartment units to be built using modular construction. Google’s interest in modular housing prompted KCBS Radio’s Stan & Susan to reach out to Guerdon founder, Lad Dawson to learn more about the technology. You can listen to the complete interview above or read the transcript of the interview below.
As Silicon Valley continues to face a severe housing shortage, tech companies like Google and Facebook have become more active in trying to help solve the problem. In response to this desperate need for housing, Guerdon has seen a big jump in interest for our technology throughout California; and particularly in the Bay Area. We currently have a project being completed in Union City, CA and have four more projects on schedule to be produced and erected in 2017 in the Bay Area alone.
Interview Transcription:
SUSAN: Affordable housing, boy it continues to be a huge problem here in the Bay Area, but Google is hoping to help its employees by buying hundreds of modular units from Vallejo based factory startup, Factory OS. The modular construction industry is growing in scope across the country and to take a closer look were joined live on the KCBS eight by eight news line by Lad Dawson. Mr. Dawson, is the founder of Guerdon Modular Buildings based in Boise, Idaho. Thanks for your time this morning.
Modular Housing, how is it different from the old fashion pre-fab housing that many of us might be familiar with, where walls arrived intact and they were just put up?
LAD DAWSON: Well in the modular construction that we’re doing with commercial construction, the modular building is broken down into a series of modules that are fully fabricated, constructed in a factory, transported to site, and then erected into a finished building with a crane. Those units are built to the exact same building codes as site built construction. They are completely finished on the interior and then the exterior of the building, all of the concrete work and the podium is all done on site as the units are put together to create a finished product.
STAN: They say “time is money” so how much money is saved and how much time is saved by building this way versus the standard stick-built on-site building?
LAD DAWSON: Well, that varies quite a bit based on what the construction costs are in a local area but what we can say is that principal benefit of using modular construction is speed to market, reduction of risk, and enhanced control over quality. So, we feel that the finished product, finished building is a higher quality, better built construction and we can shave anywhere from 8-12 months off the construction cycle delivering much needed housing and affordable housing to the markets on a more timely basis.
SUSAN: Mr. Dawson, one of the words you used caught my ear, and that was you said “commercial building.” Do you only do commercial buildings and for example multi-unit apartments? Or can individual homes be done this way?
LAD DAWSON: Our company, Guerdon Modular Buildings, is expressly focused on commercial construction. We’re the leading modular manufacturer in the western United States for commercial construction. Our focus is on multi-family, mostly apartments, student housing, dormitories, and the hospitality, hotels. We have an alliance with the Marriott Corporation on hospitality construction and have a number of hotels under construction across the Western United States using our technology. In addition to that we are very active in the Bay Area, in the housing business. We have a project now that’s being completed in Union City and we have four more projects on schedule to be produced and erected in 2017 in the Bay Area.
STAN: Real quick, before we let you go, is this the answer to the inability to get housing built in certain parts of the country or is it AN answer?
LAD DAWSON: I think it is certainly a helpful solution for many of those challenges for generating more housing delivery. The Bay Area has a very great need for housing. We can’t solve all of those problems, but what we can do is we have an answer to help finish these projects and get them to market faster with a very high quality product. And we also have an answer to assist the general contractors in overcoming some of the severe labor shortages that they have that are a challenge for them in the Bay Area.
SUSAN: Mr. Dawson, thanks for your time this morning. Lad Dawson is founder of Guerdon Modular Buildings based in Idaho.
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