Reporters, PR men and honchos from Forest City Ratner and
modular manufacturer Skanska gathered today in the cold and considerable shadow
of Barclay’s Center to witness the hoisting into place of the first of the
modular units in Atlantic Yards’ B2 residential tower, which aims to become the
world’s tallest modular building upon its completion, slated for late next
year. Of the tower’s 363 units, 181 will qualify as affordable housing—a considerable
figure in terms of both quantity and percentage, particularly in comparison to
prevailing proportions of market rate/affordable units included in new city
construction.
The building schedule called today for the placement of
three adjacent “mods,” Skanska’s Elizabeth Miller told The Observer, which
together will compose a single apartment. Appliances, fixtures and plumbing had
already been installed; all that remained to make the habitat functional was to
tie into the building’s central electrical and water lines, which have yet to
arrive. No word was forthcoming on whether the apartment assembled today might
be one of those destined for affordable rental rates.
Skanska, a multinational construction and development giant,
has been involved in modular developments in Europe for some 56 years, Ms.
Miller said, and has entered the modular market in the US primarily by building
hospitals. Fabricated off-site under controlled conditions, modular units
provide safer, higher-quality, more efficient and sustainable alternatives to
traditional modes of construction, she claimed. (Manufacture of B2 components
takes place at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.) Still, Americans have shown less
modular enthusiasm than their European counterparts, and Ms. Miller has, she
said, been hard at work “myth-busting.”
Shortly after 1 p.m., Bruce Ratner arrived on the scene,
hatted against sub-freezing temperatures, and high above, seated in a crane of
fire-engine red, an operator prepared for action. Minutes earlier, construction
workers had climbed atop the mod in question (another had been slotted in ahead
of the media’s arrival), to tighten lengths of chain and the mod—a rectangular,
15-ton affair roughly resembling a shipping containing—hovered and swayed just
above the ground.
The crane lifted and the mod rose, turning in accordance
with the machine’s slow swivel. The crowd on the corner cheered; someone
observed that a stirring score would not have been inappropriate to the moment.
In the windows of Barclay’s Center, a sign affixed to the mod’s protective
wrapping was reflected: Made in Brooklyn. As the mod lowered, men in orange
pinnies guided it into place using tethers attached at its corners. The scene
suggested a very complicated act of parallel parking.
As the construction crew made small, imperceptible final
adjustments, the mood on the corner was convivial. Some reporters had
dispersed, and most of the remaining spectators seemed to be somehow
professionally connected to Atlantic Yards. They hugged, smiled, took photos
and shook hands. Everyone congratulated everyone else, relieved, perhaps, to
have something to celebrate.
Source: New
York Observer
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