Press

RIALTO, California – April 23, 2020: Plant Prefab, the nation’s first prefabricated design and manufacturing company dedicated to sustainable construction, materials, processes, and operations, completed a fast 13-hour installation of a custom, 2,597-square-foot prefabricated home at The Palisades at Squaw Valley (Lot 63) in Olympic Valley, California, designed by The Brown Studio.

Like all Plant Prefab homes, the four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom, single-family home was built at the company’s Rialto, California factory, then shipped by truck and assembled on site. Four modular units comprised the majority of the home, with a portion of the living area and a section of the roof built from Plant Panels. This is one of the first projects built using the new Plant Building System (PBS), Plant Prefab’s patented component-based system for building custom, prefabricated homes even more efficiently and with greater design flexibility than other prefabricated building methods.

PBS uses a combination of modular units and Plant Panels, a new, panelized construction system developed by Plant Prefab. Unlike regular panels such as SIPs, which only integrate framing and insulation, Plant Panels also include plumbing, electrical, and finish materials. By integrating both modular units and panels, PBS provides architects with greater design flexibility and reduces the complexity and cost of transportation and craning, as was the case at The Palisades. PBS also utilizes an advanced engineering system that translates designs into virtual building instructions faster, and far more precisely, than traditional, manual methods. The detailed install guide Plant created for this Olympic Valley project, together with the modules, panels, and steel framing components they provided, facilitated the home’s fast and seamless assembly.

Additionally, the home was able to be constructed during the winter, when a traditional build in Olympic Valley would have been nearly impossible due to the region’s intense winter weather. Building the home offsite, in Plant Prefab’s indoor facility, in parallel with sitework, reduced total construction time by fifty percent and provided significant cost savings. The modules were delivered to the site more than 90% complete, including all flooring, baseboards, tile, cabinetry, appliances, and paint, minimizing the amount of on-site finish work.

“We were thrilled to be able to put the Plant Building System to work, because it gives our clients greater design flexibility and greater transportation and installation efficiency,” says Steve Glenn, Founder and CEO of Plant Prefab. “PBS allows us to produce high-quality homes that uphold the integrity of the architect’s design and finish specifications, in a way that is fast, sustainable, and cost-effective.”

“The design for Palisades Lot 63 was complex, and created some challenges as we tried to bridge on-site construction with prefab methods,” says Rory Brown, Principal Interior Designer at The Brown Studio. “Plant Prefab’s unique panelized building methodology allowed us to keep our design with no compromises, as well as shift more work into the factory, thereby decreasing the overall complexity and coordination work of the project.”

The new dwelling at Lot 63 is the second of a group of homes that Plant Prefab will be building for The Palisades at Squaw Valley, each designed by The Brown Studio, and follows the installation of Plant Prefab’s second home for the development at Lot 39 in November and another last June. The next units are slated to be installed this summer.

Central to the focus of the home are thoughtfully-curated interior design and architectural elements that take in the breathtaking beauty of the surrounding landscape. Honoring Plant Prefab’s ethos of sustainable building, a primary focus of the design and installation of the home was to protect and maintain the existing site.

Every Plant Prefab home is built in the company’s own 62,000-square-foot, purpose-built, custom homebuilding factory to exacting quality standards, following a rigorous sustainability program that minimizes the negative impact on energy, water, indoor air quality and material resources.

Note to editors: Since homebuilding is considered an essential business in California, Plant Prefab is complying with all California state control measures for COVID-19, including training and enforcement of special procedures that include, but are not limited to, social distancing, symptom checking, strict hygiene, and increased sanitation measures.

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ABOUT PLANT PREFAB
With a mission to make it faster and more cost-effective to build custom, high quality, healthy, single-family and multi-family homes, Plant Prefab is the first prefabricated residential design and construction company dedicated to sustainable building, materials, processes, and operations.

All Plant Prefab’s projects are prefabricated in the company's 62,000-square-foot homebuilding factory in Rialto, California, with a patented building system that reduces build time by at least 50% over traditional construction while minimizing construction's negative impact on energy, water, and resources. Clients can work with any architect they choose, or they can use Plant Prefab's award-winning, in-house design studio.

Plant Prefab is defining a new standard in residential home design and construction, helping individuals, architects and developers alike efficiently design and build high-quality, cost-efficient, healthy homes. Plant Prefab was funded by Amazon, Obvious Ventures, and others.