102 DIGS.NET
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12.16.2016
a client's site for assembly, nearly always in one day—to various factories
around the country.
Not an ideal way to realize LivingHome's sophisticated designs, which
generally require a certain level of customization. "Plant Prefab is going
to make it much, much easier for us to build our quality," says Glenn.
Designed around executing high-quality, sustainable design, Plant Prefab
will construct not only the modules used in LivingHome's projects, but
those of other architects, designers and builders looking to execute on
their environmentally responsible designs. "It has huge potential," Glenn
says of the facility.
Plant Prefab will no doubt also expand upon a big pragmatic plus of
choosing a LivingHomes product: speed. "Once permitting is done, it is
reasonable to assume that the construction phase will be half the time of
a regular build," says Matt Langton, who coordinates sales and operations
Ten years later, the downturn, or what Glenn terms a "nuclear winter
in home building" has thawed, thanks to an improved real-estate and
building climate, plus an increase in awareness around environmentally
sustainable construction and energy efficient homes. "In the last three
years we've grown a lot," he reports. LivingHomes currently has 45
projects under contract—no small feat given the company's grand total of
30 homes since its start—and has just opened a dedicated manufacturing
plant in Rialto, California, an hour east of downtown Los Angeles.
A Plant of Their Own
Given the caliber of the LivingHomes product—the luxury tier of pre-fab
homes—the brand's new facility, Plant Prefab, has increasingly become
an essential part of the business. Previously, the firm had outsourced the
production of its homes—which are created in modules then shipped to
In 2006, entrepreneur Steve Glenn started a company. The idea was great—eco-friendly pre-fabricated homes.
The timing was not. "It was just a year and change before the beginning of the worst real estate downturn since
the Great Depression," says the entrepreneur, sitting at his desk in LivingHomes' modest Santa Monica office.
LivingHome's 6-unit development, Atwater Village in Los Angeles
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