Complete Pre-Fabs in Chicago

I am writing to see if there is anyone interested in owning a complete modern pre-fab home in the Chicago-land area?

Some background:

My wife and I recently moved to San Diego from Chicago and are thinking about building our next home, a modern pre-fab, and we are in the land searching phase right now. My wife's father (who resides in Downers Grove, IL) is a contractor/builder who has worked as a superintendent with the largest builder in Chicago for the last 25 years. He recently decided to start up his own company and has filled most of his time with re-model jobs - kitchens, bathrooms, house additions...

I love modern homes and especially all the new prefabs that are available now. I have been reading many of the posts and it seems that there are a number of people like me who do not want to settle for the cookie cutter homes that have invaded America. There are a few companies like clever homes, flat pak, Michelle's projects - Glide house, Breeze house that offer all the construction materials and guidance to complete these houses, but I do not see many general contractors/builders offering their services as well. The customer is in charge of finding these companies and contractors on their own, Something that we will have to do shortly as well.

What if these homes were being built and the new owner would not have to be involved in the process of finding land, pouring foundations, gathering permits, hiring contractors... My father-in-law has the means to make this happen and I have been trying to convince him to do so.

The idea is to keep the costs down as much as possible, build in an area that will allow a more modern style home to be built and in an area where land is not outrageously expensive. Is anyone interested?

I would love to do a prefab home in Chicago.

I live in Garfield Park, which is shaping up to be quite the green neighborhood in the city. It also has the largest amount of vacant lots in the city. I am quite the novice at rehab - and you can tell by how long it is taking me to finish my 2 flat.

But yesterday my friend was saying how great it would be if a developer put modern prefabs up before the condo-boxes. I'd buy one.

It seems like it would be soooo hard to get the city to okay one.

Hello all...

I'm new to LiveModern and just registered. After prowling the boards at fabprefab/fabzone and designaddict, I've ended up here.

Very interested in modern prefab in the city Chicago. But am completely flummoxed as to how to go about doing it as well. Prefab seems to an the answer to to this, but where to start?

This very same subject was briefly discussed in fabchat (fabzone), but it went nowhere.

Right now, I'm living (trapped) in a condo in Rogers Park and would love to get out and into something single-family, modern and reasonable. Hive and Flatpak are both HQ'd in Minneapolis, so I'm sure their designs are sturdy enough for Chicago winters. But are they sturdy enough for Chicago's bureaucracy?

If a way exists to do a small concentration of this kind of housing within the City, I think it would be fantastic. Bringing back a blighted area with a good number of empty lots, such as Garfield Park? Count me in, west and mlech. Can a small but vocal market demand get us what we want?

This is green architecture; and Daley likes that (allegedly). He supported the green/energy-efficient rehab of some of his beloved Chicago bungalows a few years back; with a few different government agencies and private contracting firms. These properties were used to showcase green technologies, then sold back to a few lucky buyers. I believe this was in the West/Southwest side.

Maybe someone with local professional credentials (such as Blair Kamin or Doug Garofalo) could weigh in positively on the subject? If affordable housing is as important to Daley as he claims it is, this could be a test to show if he really means it.
Can you say grant money or tax break? Woo-hoo!


* * * * * * * * * *

Consumers that are interested in REAL modern design seem to be a distinct minority in Chicago. Just take a look at all the cheesy 6-flat new construction condos that reference vintage styles. A blend of developer-design, faux Disneyesque and suburban hausfrau trimwork. Ugh. What crap.

What ever vaguely modern stuff is built (usually townhouse style condo construction) seems to be restrained by some sort of desire/requirement to try to fit in stylewise to the existing vintage homes. Almost like they need to apologize for Modernism.
As if they can't complement the existing architecture without aping it. And very badly.

Let's wipe out this disease. Remember, it might not happen to you, but it could happen to someone you love. Maybe even your children.

YES! We are currently searching for land or a tear-down in the Pilsen area to begin a pre-fab project. Is your father-in-law interested in consulting? We're flummoxed...this is our first home buying/building experience, and we can't even get straight answers from a mortgage lender about how a loan might work. The most info. we've gotten is buy a lot with a structure on it, then tear it down, but financing a pre-fab isn't a straightforward construction loan b/c it's considered manufactured housing.

In short...we're lost, and definitely looking for a friendly pre-fab community to steer us, or at least commiserate with us. Any help is appreciated.

-CRR

Hello.
Jan. 7, 2006.

I've now begun an active search for a single family home within Chicago city limits.
At this point it appears i'm going to need to buy pre-existing construction.
Anyone out there ever find out anything about modern prefab in the city?

crankyd@earthlink.net

Where were you when I lived in Downers Grove? I moved there for a job in 2003 and looked for a modern house for more than a year with no luck. (Most of the fifties houses were grabbed and torn down by developers before they ever came on the market.) Having lived in an Eichler previously, dark ranches and cramped Victorians weren't for me. I finally gave up and moved back to the Bay area (and my second Eichler).

I've found that it's tought to build pre-fab in chicago given the lot sized in the city limits (25' x 125'). But chicago does have some cool modern stuff going on right now...you can check out my website:

www.modernchicagohomes.com

vik
vik@modernchicagohomes.com

How about a modern prefab addition? I live in Glenview, in a 1950's split-level, and I'm looking to add a family room with master suite above it. I would love to work with a contractor who specialized in prefab. Sign me up!

I'm VERY interested in what it would take to pull off a prefab addition. We have a 50s box ranch in Albany Park and have been thinking of adding on since we moved in. The FlatPak house from Charlie Lazor seems to be a reasonable option, but I'm curious if they come in as reasonable (cost per sq. foot) as promised.

Previously shanteka sigers wrote:

I would love to do a prefab home in Chicago.

I live in Garfield Park, which is shaping up to be quite the green neighborhood in the city. It also has the largest amount of vacant lots in the city. I am quite the novice at rehab - and you can tell by how long it is taking me to finish my 2 flat.

But yesterday my friend was saying how great it would be if a developer put modern prefabs up before the condo-boxes. I'd buy one.

It seems like it would be soooo hard to get the city to okay one.

Previously East Garfield wrote:

Previously shanteka sigers wrote:

I would love to do a prefab home in Chicago.



I live in Garfield Park, which is shaping up to be quite the green neighborhood in the city. It also has the largest amount of vacant lots in the city. I am quite the novice at rehab - and you can tell by how long it is taking me to finish my 2 flat.



But yesterday my friend was saying how great it would be if a developer put modern prefabs up before the condo-boxes. I'd buy one.



It seems like it would be soooo hard to get the city to okay one.

Hi, I live in East Garfield Park at Kedze/Washington.  Where do U live?

Did U every find someone to build one of these?  U can contact me at chekago@yahoo.com.

I am interested in the same thing.

 

Strange enough, I've been developing a prefab for a standard chicago lot for some time now, and since the Smart Home came to the Museum of Science and Industry, we've had a huge increase in interest. There are a couple code issues and inspection issues that we're currently sorting out with the city, but i think completely prefab houses in the city of chicago are not far off in our future.  we don't have a website up for our prefabs yet- but let me know if you're interested and i'll send you some plans and images. so glad to see so many people are interested in prefab homes! 

kate@squarerootarch.com