Community Wins Award for Use of Modular Construction

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

San Jose, Calif.—Guerdon Modular Buildings has won best-in-show in the Modular Building Institute’s 2015 Awards of Distinction for its Domain Apartments, a five-story, 444-unit luxury townhouse-style community in north San Jose, Calif.

“There is a lot of expertise and planning required to build a complex as large and sophisticated as Domain Apartments,” Lad Dawson, Guerdon’s CEO, told MHN. “We’ve put in the time, invested in the necessary technologies, and now we are seeing our hard work pay off. It is exciting to be in a position to push modular construction into the mainstream for large, complex and high-end builds. For us, this is validation that Guerdon’s work is leading the industry in large-scale modular builds.”

Domain was the first project in the state and the largest in the country to be constructed of pre-manufactured modular units placed on a post-tensioned parking podium. The modular units were built at Guerdon’s manufacturing facility in Boise, Idaho, and the units were trucked to the construction site and set in place using one of the largest production cranes in the nation. The only on-site construction required was exterior shear bracing and siding.

“With every success, we feel that we get a little bit closer to showcasing how modular technology is the best way to produce a quality result that is custom to the needs of the customer,” Dawson said. “Guerdon has always strived to have modular technology be the mainstream method of construction. We don’t rest on our laurels, we continue to push all our teams, from engineering to production and quality assurance, to reach this goal.”

The units include many high-quality finishes and luxury upgrades, including 9-foot ceilings, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and in-home washers and dryers.

“Some people wonder about the capability that modular construction has to produce quality finishes, and this project serves as proof that modular techniques can deliver this level of quality better than traditional methods,” Dawson said. “Tenants in that area wouldn’t have accepted a subpar product; our teams knew we needed to deliver the amenities that this community expects.”

Domain Apartments is situated right next to Cisco’s campus in the heart of Silicon Valley and the building is minutes from the Tasman Light Rail and major freeways. With shopping and restaurants just outside the gates and a large dedicated park across the street, residents are within walking distance of everything they need.

Domain also won the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Structure Awards for best residential project, in which it competed against site built construction projects. Equity Group Residential was the project’s developer.