Prefab Home Builder In Receivership

Prefab Home Picture

Prefab home builder Empyrean International, the builder of Deck Houses, Acorn Homes, and Dwell homes is the latest victim of the credit crunch. The Massachusetts-based company closed in late October and two weeks ago, a court-ordered receiver took control of the company. The owner of Empyrean, Patrick Gilrane, blames the failure of Lehman Brothers as well as the weakening economy for the closure. He had hoped to restructure and reopen the company next year but the home builder has defaulted on a $7 million loan and has not paid its utility bills or taxes for months. The Boston Globe reports that the receiver, attorney Stewart Grossman plans to put the company up for sale once he puts its affairs in order. The company's roots go back to 1947 with the founding of Acorn Structures. Deck Houses and Acorn homes have crated entire neighborhoods. Over the last few years Empyrean has worked with Dwell magazine to create boxy modernist homes. Dwell plans to continue working on prefab homes with a different builder.

Prefab: Blue Sky Homes prototype in Yucca Valley

Blue Sky Prefab Home Picture

The pitch on this prefab prototype in the desert actually came from AEP Span, the company that manufactured the roof. The design is a prototype from Blue Sky Homes, which touts the light-gauge galvanized steel frame as a less costly alternative to some of the custom structural steel modular designs winning magazine spreads. The design, by Palm Springs-based o2 Architecture, is a kit of parts assembled on site and meant to be both site-specific and flexible enough to work in other settings. For more details on the cost and construction time -- and for more photos -- click to the Read More.

Startup's prefab homes aim for zero energy bills

Startup's prefab homes aim for zero energy bills

Prefabricated housing seems an unlikely ally in the fight against climate change, but a new San Francisco company is setting out to construct factory-built homes that create as much energy as they use - reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with operating buildings.

Zeta Communities, which is headquartered in South of Market and owns a manufacturing plant in San Leandro, is close to completing its first "zero energy" townhome in Oakland and is working with a developer on a proposed 30-unit studio apartment building in Berkeley.

The firm plans to build segments of housing units indoors and ship them to development sites for assembly.