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The future of Bay St. Louis could be prefabricated

South Mississippi Sun Herald

Thursday 22 December 2005, 6:28 pm
Keywords: Katrina Hurricane Relief , News Articles

Associated Press

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. - The neighborhoods of Bay St. Louis could eventually contain hundreds of ready-made houses, said Bill Dennis, the architect who leads the area's design team. "I think these homes will play a big part in rebuilding on the Coast," Dennis said. "There's just not going to be enough builders to do all the construction that needs to be done."

The homes would be built in a factory in another part of the country and shipped to the area. It takes about four months to assemble the homes onsite.

A 1,000-square-foot house on the rubble-filled Ballentine Street is the first to appear in Bay St. Louis. It was built by Allen Associates in Santa Barbara, Calif., and delivered on trucks. The company is designing them to match the traditional feeling of Bay St. Louis homes.

Prefab homes tend to cost about 40 percent less, per square foot, than regular homes and they often are a better quality structure, Dennis said. "The construction is going to be much stronger than a stick-built house, because it has to be sturdy enough to travel on a truck," he said. "Also, the materials are usually inside during production, and not on a lot, exposed to the elements."

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/13394145.htm