The first residential component at Atlantic Yards, a 32-story tower known as B2, will contain 930 prefabricated units and a mix of studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms, developer Forest City Ratner said today.
The company had announced in October that the 15 residential towers at the project would be built using pre-fabricated, modular construction. But details revealed today show a unit breakdown of 150 studios, 165 one-bedrooms and 48 two-bedrooms, with 20 percent of the two-bedroom units offered as affordable housing. The groundbreaking is scheduled for Dec. 18. When completed in 2014, B2 will be the tallest modular building in the world.
Forest City Ratner is partnering with Skanska USA, a construction and development group, in a joint venture called FC + Skanska Modular that will manufacture the modular components in a 100,000-square-foot space at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The firm estimates they will hire some 125 unionized workers at the fabrication facility, beginning in spring 2013 when modular production is fully under way. SHoP Architects is handling the design.
“Construction is by definition about building,” William Flemming, president and CEO of Skanska USABuilding, said. “With this project, however, and with our partnership with [Forest City Ratner] and the construction trades, we are also building a new industry that has potential to become New York City’s newest export, a product and process that can transform how construction is done in this century.”
Ratner recently dropped a lawsuit with the city over a $741 million tax assessment of Barclays Center. —Christopher Cameron