Press

RIALTO, California – February 24, 2021: On February 22 and 23, Plant Prefab, the nation’s first Certified B Corporation™ custom prefabricated design and construction company, installed a new prefabricated home in the Petaluma Gap region of Sonoma designed by Piechota Architecture. Replacing a home lost in the North Bay Wildfires of 2017, the nearly 4,000-square-foot single-family home was installed over the span of just two days and is a prime example of how Plant Prefab’s building methodology makes it possible to build custom, high-quality homes faster and more cost-effectively than traditional, site-based construction.

“At Plant, with our offsite construction process and knowledge of fire-resilient materials and methods, we can offer a huge advantage for victims of California’s wildfires who want to rebuild sustainably, as quickly as possible, and cost effectively,” states Plant Prefab Founder and CEO Steve Glenn. “We are honored to be part of a major effort in California to help fire victims to get back to their communities and their homes.”

As Plant Prefab and San Francisco-based practice Piechota Architecture are both rooted in California, the two entities were uniquely positioned to address the need for housing solutions in Sonoma following the destructive North Bay Wildfires of October 2017, which destroyed more than 5,000 structures across Northern California. Plant has completed several fire rebuilds in the area, with more than a dozen more in development for victims of other wildfires throughout the state.

The Sonoma residence is positioned on a rolling hillside, encompassing an active vineyard and a pond. Piechota Architecture designed the home to sit in harmony with the landscape, featuring a gracefully sloping roofline that mimics the rise of the hillside and tall glass walls that open to draw cooling breezes through the home. The modern design retains beloved elements of the client’s original home, like the guest wing and private master wing connected by an open-plan living area, while incorporating a number of contemporary upgrades and high-end finishes, including custom cabinetry and countertops milled from reclaimed Redwood and Oak trees lost in the fire.

“This has been a complex project, with elements of the structure that we thought would be challenging to modularize; but, through working with Plant Prefab, there’s no question that our new home, designed to high-quality finishing specifications, is coming at considerably less cost and at least months earlier than if we had relied solely on a general contractor,” said the client.

Fire resilience was a core focus of the home's design, siting, materials choices, and construction. Utilizing Plant’s patented Plant Building System™, all prefabricated components were custom constructed to comply with local building code, climate conditions, and Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) zoning requirements. Non-combustible materials were used in the most vulnerable areas of the home, and the large, expressive overhangs of the class A-rated roof provide added protection.

“Our goal was to capture the spirit of the original residence, while accomplishing the homeowner’s desires for key upgrades, like enhanced fire resiliency, upscale finishes, and larger, more open living spaces,” says Daniel Piechota, Principal of Piechota Architecture. “Plant’s offsite building system was able to help us achieve these goals in a more cost-effective manner than typical, site-based construction.”

Plant’s custom approach to prefabrication, its patented Plant Building System, accommodated the client’s needs and architect’s specifications, while also allowing the home to be constructed far more responsibly and cost-effectively than on-site methods. Every Plant Prefab home is built in the company’s 62,000-square-foot facility to exacting quality standards, following a rigorous sustainability program that minimizes the negative impact on energy, water, indoor air quality, and material resources.

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ABOUT PIECHOTA ARCHITECTURE
Located in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, Piechota Architecture’s commercial and residential projects build upon two decades of work, celebrating the textural richness of some of Northern California’s most spectacular settings—urban, coastal, and rural.

By partnering with clients and exploring new ways to think about the beautiful and functional, Piechota is able to create architecture that punctuates the straightforward with the nuanced—architecture that is deliberate without being loud, and subtle without being quiet.

The firm is currently working on projects in San Francisco, Big Sur, Carmel Valley, Napa Valley, Lake Tahoe, and Sonoma County.

ABOUT PLANT PREFAB
With a mission to build a better world by design, Plant Prefab makes it faster and more efficient to build custom, high-quality, healthy, single-family and multi-family homes. Plant Prefab is the first Certified B Corporation™ custom prefabricated 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, CA utilizing the Plant Building System™. Combining advanced engineering with Plant Panels™ and Plant Modules™, specialized components designed and patented by Plant, the Plant Building System provides greater design flexibility, quality control, and time and cost efficiencies than both site-based construction and conventional prefabricated approaches while minimizing the negative impact on energy, water, and resources. Clients can work with any architect they choose, including 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 efficiently design and build high-quality, cost-efficient, healthy homes. Plant Prefab was funded by Amazon, Obvious Ventures, and others.

In 2019, Plant Prefab committed to full carbon neutrality in their operations by 2028, the first prefabricated home builder to announce a net zero goal.

Plant Prefab homes have garnered significant industry recognition including the AIA’s top sustainable award, Architizer’s Jury and People Choice Awards, Green Builder Magazine’s Home of Year, Business 2.0’s ‘World’s 11 Coolest Products,’ and Businessweek’s “Architectural Wonders of the World.” Nearly thirty Plant Prefab homes have been certified LEED for Homes Platinum, including the first home ever to achieve the certification.