Next February, FullStack Modular, a leading supplier of prefabricated modules, is scheduled to begin production for its first project in California, a, 86,000-sf, six-story, 143-room hotel that will be the Treehouse Hotel brand’s debut in the United States.
Starwood Capital Group launched Treehouse in 2019 as a eco-friendly lifestyle concept. It currently operates three properties in the United Kingdom, and is developing the U.S. project through its brands management company SH Hotels and Resorts. Its American hotel will be located in Sunnyvale, Calif., and is expected to open late next year. (Starwood is also repurposing several existing structures onsite for additional hotel rooms and suites.)
In an interview with BD+C, Roger Krulak, FullStack Modular’s president and founder, said that his company will produce 200 modules for this project from its manufacturing plant in Portland, Ore. (FullStack’s other plant is in Brooklyn, N.Y.) He estimates that the production would take less than six months, and assembly another three months. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Synergy Modular is the project’s general contractor.
Krulak believes that Starwood chose FullStack Modular for its fully integrated system approach: its modules are delivered with electrical, plumbing, and mechanical components and systems installed. The building’s façade is also installed at the factory, as are each units’ fixtures and finishes. The building doesn’t require a concrete core and, where necessary, can be rigged at the factory for seismic resistance. Even furniture can be included. The only on-site construction, said Krulak, involves the building’s hallways and elevators.
According to Starwood, the majority of Treehouse’s rooms will provide private outdoor spaces that include ground floor patios and balconies and terraces on the upper floors.
“The FullStack Modular system is one of the most volumetric modular systems anywhere,” said Andy Nuessle, Synergy Modular’s president, in a prepared statement. “The hotel is 100 percent modular from the foundation to the roof.”
Starwood Capital has not disclosed the cost of the Sunnyvale Treehouse Hotel. On its website, FullStack Modular states that, in general, modular production reduces construction costs by as much as 20 percent, construction time by as much as 50 percent, and construction waste by as much as 67 percent. Krulak estimated that the Sunnyvale project will be completed 30 to 40 percent faster than it would were it build using convention on-site construction methods.
A sliver, but increasing
The Modular Building Institute estimates that buildings assembled from modules produced offsite accounted for 5.52 percent of all new construction in North America in 2021. That represented a doubling of market share in five years, and Tom Hardiman, the Institute’s executive director, told the website Construction Dive that he expects modular’s share to rise to 10 percent by 2026.
Krulak is also optimistic about modular’s growth, especially on the residential side. “Housing in the U.S. is at a huge deficit, and construction has no capacity to meet that need. So off-site solutions are picking up significantly. We get a call almost every day.”
Krulak said that FullStack Modular is looking at “a number of opportunities” in the U.S. and internationally. Earlier this month, the company announced it had entered into a strategic alliance with Saudi Arabian Baytur Construction to pursue opportunities for Vision 2030, a large-scale hospitality and urban tourism initiative whose key goal is to increase the Kingdom’s overall hospitality capacity by more than 70,000 hotel rooms.
Related Stories
| May 29, 2012
Reconstruction Awards Entry Information
Download a PDF of the Entry Information at the bottom of this page.
| May 24, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Awards Entry Form
Download a PDF of the Entry Form at the bottom of this page.
| May 3, 2012
Best commercial modular buildings and marketing programs recognized
Judges scored entries on architectural excellence, technical innovation, cost effectiveness, energy efficiency, and calendar days to complete.
| Apr 13, 2012
Best Commercial Modular Buildings Recognized
Judges scored building entries on a number of criteria including architectural excellence, technical innovation, cost effectiveness, energy efficiency, and calendar days to complete, while marketing pieces were judged on strategy, implementation, and quantifiable results. Read More
| Oct 6, 2011
GREENBUILD 2011: Dow Corning features new silicone weather barrier sealant
Modular Design Architecture >Dow Corning 758 sealant used in GreenZone modular high-performance medical facility.
| Sep 29, 2011
Kohler supports 2011 Solar Decathlon competition teams
Modular Architecture > In a quest to create the ultimate ‘green’ house, 20 collegiate teams compete in Washington D.C. Mall.
| Sep 12, 2011
Living Buildings: Are AEC Firms up to the Challenge?
Modular Architecture > You’ve done a LEED Gold or two, maybe even a LEED Platinum. But are you and your firm ready to take on the Living Building Challenge? Think twice before you say yes.
| Sep 9, 2011
$22 million investment made in energy efficient building maker
The buildings use at least 25% less energy than the strictest building codes in the U.S., and as much as 80% less energy in certain parts of the country.
| Jul 22, 2011
Five award-winning modular innovations
The Modular Building Institute's 2011 Awards of Distinction highlight fresh ideas in manufactured construction projects.
| Mar 11, 2011
Temporary modular building at Harvard targets sustainability
Anderson Anderson Architecture of San Francisco designed the Harvard Yard childcare facility, a modular building manufactured by Triumph Modular of Littleton, Mass., that was installed at Harvard University. The 5,700-sf facility will remain on the university’s Cambridge, Mass., campus for 18 months while the Harvard Yard Child Care Center and the Oxford Street Daycare Coop are being renovated.