Steel Yourself for a Well-Contained Home

FRIDAY, JULY 3, 2015


DETROIT--Eager for a home that withstands hurricanes and boasts walls with "a story to tell?"

In the Detroit area, you can contain your enthusiasm (and your family, pets and household goods) in a new shipping-container development.

Yes, those hulking steel boxes known officially as intermodal freight containers have come a long way from their industrial roots as giant, rusty, stackable cargo holds.

ContainerCondo
Photos: Three Squared Inc.
Patric and Leslie Horn, founders of Three Squared Inc., say their new multifamily development in Detroit will be a first for the emerging industry of shipping-container construction
ContainerCondo

Horns3Squared

Photos: Three Squared Inc.

Patric and Leslie Horn, founders of Three Squared Inc., say their new multifamily development in Detroit will be a first for the emerging industry of shipping-container construction.

They've found new life as self-service beer containers, pools, backyard offices and lottery towers (look it up), and even have their own Pinterest page.

Home Sweet Container Home

But all of those uses are relatively modest.

Now, the giant strongbox can also be your ticket to luxe living on a large scale, according to developer Three Squared Inc. of Detroit.

The company is ready to roll out the welcome mat at its new Rosa Parks complex—billed as "the first multi-family dwelling constructed from retired shipping containers in the United States."

The $3.4 million 20-unit, four-story complex broke ground in April. The first phase of the "econ-conscious cargo container condo project," a Model Center, is slated to bow July 10.

Tarps manufacturing, Inc.
Just Like New Overspray Management

Cookie Cutter Crumbles

Three Squared says its container construction system, called Cargolinc, offers "a new, smarter way to build ... at nearly half the cost of cookie-cutter construction."

ShippingContainerRendering

The $3.4 million 20-unit, four-story Rosa Parks complex will be an eco-conscious cargo container condo project, says developer Three Squared Inc. of Detroit.

APV Engineered Coatings
Key Resin Company

The company calls the container projects "eye-catching," energy efficient, green and durable, able to resist both fire and "Class 5 hurricane-strength winds."

Finally, the company says, container walls "have traveled the world and have a story to tell."

"They′ve seen the ocean, other countries, and stood the test of time."

Modern Safety Techniques
NLB Corporation

Now, time will tell if they will also withstand the test of homebuyers.

Tagged categories: Building Envelope; Commercial Construction; Developers; Marine; Residential Construction; Steel


Comments

Join the Conversation:

Sign in to add your comments.