The New York Times notes that while the term prefab or modular has long conjured images of cheap and flimsy, today’s builders are learning that modular construction uses the same materials as traditional building, and can save 20 percent in costs as well as months of construction.  In Philadelphia, an 80,000 square foot, four-story modular building houses students attending Temple University. The developer of the Modules at Templeton said the $9.5 million project would have cost 25 percent more, and taken 15 months to build instead of eight, had it been done on site.  An eight-story modular apartment building is planned in another area of Philadelphia.  Work will start soon on a $6 million two-story modular child care facility for Lehman College in the Bronx.  The 20 modules will be trucked in from the factory in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, and will be assembled within a week.  It will cost one half of site-built, and save half the time.  A 34-story modular apartment tower is being designed for the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, a topic we covered here June 1.  Tom O’Hara, the director of business development for modular builder Capsys  Corp., in Brooklyn, says, “It never rains inside our building, it never snows.”