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Prefab: The Permanent Answer for Classroom Space Needs

March 2009 - Excerpts from an article submitted by Cliff Cort, President and CEO of Triumph Modular

School districts across America are facing new challenges every day to accommodate growing student enrollments and create versatile learning spaces.

But tackling those new challenges with old solutions isn't always the best approach - particularly when timetables are tight and creating high-quality new space as quickly as possible is the goal.

More and more, prefab building solutions are the smartest way for school officials to address a wide variety of classroom space needs. Prefab, or modular, classrooms have long been relied on as a temporary answer to school district and university space needs. It's an efficient way to provide expanded learning space immediately while more permanent plans are being developed. And the modern temporary classroom has come a long way in terms of the quality of the learning environment.

Quite simply, the best thing we can do for school districts with changing space needs is to make a temporary classroom that doesn't feel ... temporary. Because the reality is that some temporary classrooms wind up sticking around on a school campus for 10 years, 15 years or more. We've recognized that - our entire industry has recognized it - and so the products we develop need to reflect that reality.

For the school district or university, the upside of prefab classroom solutions is huge when measured in time savings alone. The design and permitting phases of prefab and site-built projects proceed roughly on the same track and timetable. But once site development and foundation work is complete, the speed to completion of prefab really accelerates. That's because the classroom or other project is under construction - off site in a warehouse - concurrent to the site development work. Project completion for a prefab building project can be achieved as much as 50 percent faster than with site built methods.

This controlled process also means controlling cost overruns - a traditional and costly headache for many permanent school expansion projects.

It is no small thing that the prefab construction industry offers a more sustainable, eco-friendly way to create long-term classroom and other spaces.

There is less materials waste with prefab because of the controlled, factory setting in which construction is performed. Air quality of the final project is never compromised because of moisture settling into framing materials - also because of the factory-controlled setting. And there is less site disturbance and less impact on surrounding property and the construction process is safer.

Flexibility. Adaptability. Sustainability. Those are the principles inherent to a high-quality prefab classroom project.

What for many years has been a standard temporary answer for schools and universities is now a legitimate - and in many ways preferable - option for permanent classroom construction.

Cliff Cort is President and CEO of Triumph Modular in Littleton, Massachusetts.