Near the tip of Manhattan Island in New York City is rising the Big Apple’s first modular residential structure, a seven-story apartment building of concrete and steel. The Stack, as builder Gluck+ Architects calls it, is being assembled at the rate of four modules a day. All 56 of the 45-foot modules are expected to be set by next week, with a projected October, 2013 completion of the interior finish work. Counting off-site building, the entire project will require ten months, six months less than on-site construction in this town called Inwood. As MHProNews has learned from fastcodesign, the modular units are assembled in a factory in Penn. and trucked to the site. “Normal construction is a nightmare,” say chief architect Peter Gluck. But in a factory situation, “You can easily supervise what’s being done, whereas in normal construction, that’s really hard to maintain.”

(Photo credit: fastcodesign–the Stack in New York City)