Six years ago, 461 Dean Street — then and now the nation’s tallest modular apartment building at 32 stories — opened its doors on Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. The 363-unit tower had been plagued with four years of delays, lawsuits and leaks, and disputes with the project’s contractors almost derailed construction completely. 

Despite 461 Dean’s troubled history, low-rise modular construction has expanded quickly over the past few years in the Western U.S. and Canada, serving areas where detached homes and three-story apartment buildings are the norm. Some cities and states are even hiring modular builders to provide temporary relief housing in the wake of hurricanes, floods and tornadoes, instead of the much-maligned FEMA trailers. Modular accounted for about 5.5 percent of the North American construction industry last year, or roughly $200 billion worth of construction starts, according to the Modular Building Institute, a trade group.

Developers now use modular construction for all kinds of buildings, including supportive housing, hotels, resorts, apartments, detached homes, senior living facilities, office buildings and factories. 

Rising labor costs and tighter supply chains seem to have pushed demand for modular projects even higher during the pandemic. Modular contractors typically source most of the building components and fixtures — from sinks, tiles and toilets to walls and appliances — and assemble them at a factory before shipping them to a construction site. 

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