Next February, FullStack Modular, a leading supplier of prefabricated modules, is scheduled to begin production for its first project in California, a, 86,000-sf, six-story, 143-room hotel that will be the Treehouse Hotel brand’s debut in the United States.
Starwood Capital Group launched Treehouse in 2019 as a eco-friendly lifestyle concept. It currently operates three properties in the United Kingdom, and is developing the U.S. project through its brands management company SH Hotels and Resorts. Its American hotel will be located in Sunnyvale, Calif., and is expected to open late next year. (Starwood is also repurposing several existing structures onsite for additional hotel rooms and suites.)
In an interview with BD+C, Roger Krulak, FullStack Modular’s president and founder, said that his company will produce 200 modules for this project from its manufacturing plant in Portland, Ore. (FullStack’s other plant is in Brooklyn, N.Y.) He estimates that the production would take less than six months, and assembly another three months. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Synergy Modular is the project’s general contractor.
Krulak believes that Starwood chose FullStack Modular for its fully integrated system approach: its modules are delivered with electrical, plumbing, and mechanical components and systems installed. The building’s façade is also installed at the factory, as are each units’ fixtures and finishes. The building doesn’t require a concrete core and, where necessary, can be rigged at the factory for seismic resistance. Even furniture can be included. The only on-site construction, said Krulak, involves the building’s hallways and elevators.
According to Starwood, the majority of Treehouse’s rooms will provide private outdoor spaces that include ground floor patios and balconies and terraces on the upper floors.
“The FullStack Modular system is one of the most volumetric modular systems anywhere,” said Andy Nuessle, Synergy Modular’s president, in a prepared statement. “The hotel is 100 percent modular from the foundation to the roof.”
Starwood Capital has not disclosed the cost of the Sunnyvale Treehouse Hotel. On its website, FullStack Modular states that, in general, modular production reduces construction costs by as much as 20 percent, construction time by as much as 50 percent, and construction waste by as much as 67 percent. Krulak estimated that the Sunnyvale project will be completed 30 to 40 percent faster than it would were it build using convention on-site construction methods.
A sliver, but increasing
![Treehouse's first hotel in the U.S. will have 143 rooms.](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Steinberg%20Hart_Treehouse%20Hotel%20Sunnyvale%20Modular_South%20View_high%20%281%29.jpg)
The Modular Building Institute estimates that buildings assembled from modules produced offsite accounted for 5.52 percent of all new construction in North America in 2021. That represented a doubling of market share in five years, and Tom Hardiman, the Institute’s executive director, told the website Construction Dive that he expects modular’s share to rise to 10 percent by 2026.
Krulak is also optimistic about modular’s growth, especially on the residential side. “Housing in the U.S. is at a huge deficit, and construction has no capacity to meet that need. So off-site solutions are picking up significantly. We get a call almost every day.”
Krulak said that FullStack Modular is looking at “a number of opportunities” in the U.S. and internationally. Earlier this month, the company announced it had entered into a strategic alliance with Saudi Arabian Baytur Construction to pursue opportunities for Vision 2030, a large-scale hospitality and urban tourism initiative whose key goal is to increase the Kingdom’s overall hospitality capacity by more than 70,000 hotel rooms.
Related Stories
| Jun 28, 2013
Building owners cite BIM/VDC as 'most exciting trend' in facilities management, says Mortenson report
A recent survey of more than 60 building owners and facility management professionals by Mortenson Construction shows that BIM/VDC is top of mind among owner professionals.
| Jun 13, 2013
AIA partners with industry groups to launch $30,000 'Designing Recovery' design competition
The program will award a total of $30,000 to three winning designs, divided equally between three locations: Joplin, Mo., New Orleans, and New York.
| Jun 10, 2013
Lake Washington STEM school combines modular and site-built construction to meet ambitious schedule
When the Lake Washington School District outside Seattle needed a new high school built on an ambitious permitting and construction schedule of seven months, modular construction proved to be an ideal solution.
| Jun 5, 2013
USGBC: Free LEED certification for projects in new markets
In an effort to accelerate sustainable development around the world, the U.S. Green Building Council is offering free LEED certification to the first projects to certify in the 112 countries where LEED has yet to take root.
| Jun 3, 2013
Construction spending inches upward in April
The U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced today that construction spending during April 2013 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $860.8 billion, 0.4 percent above the revised March estimate of $857.7 billion.
| May 30, 2013
The Make It Right squabble: ‘How many trees did you plant today?’
A debate has been raging in the blogosphere over the last few months about an article in The New Republic, “If You Build It, They Might Not Come,” in which staff writer Lydia DePillis took Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation to task for botching its effort to revitalize the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.
| Apr 30, 2013
Tips for designing with fire rated glass - AIA/CES course
Kate Steel of Steel Consulting Services offers tips and advice for choosing the correct code-compliant glazing product for every fire-rated application. This BD+C University class is worth 1.0 AIA LU/HSW.
| Feb 28, 2013
Novel multifamily solutions to be presented at New York Modular Construction Summit
The New York Modular Construction Summit will be co-hosted by the Modular Building Institute and Pratt Institute School of Architecture on May 16, 2013, in Brooklyn, N.Y.
| Feb 22, 2013
Starbucks pilot program rolls out small, modular stores
Coffee giant Starbucks is rolling out mini-stores with maximum local flavor, as part of an international pilot program.