Another holy grail (and slippery rhetoric): architectural firm SHoP (which designed B2) now claims to have reinvented modular construction with Assembly OSM

The modular holy grail contains to recur, this time from SHoP, the architectural firm hired to design the only Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park modular tower, 461 Dean St. (aka B2), which has founded a new company, Assembly OSM.

Consider SHoP founders take next leap in modular construction, published by the industry-friendly Real Estate Weekly 10/26/21:

SHoP architecture founders Bill and Chris Sharples have unveiled the first apartment unit built by their next generation modular construction company, Assembly OSM.

The one-bedroom unit has been built using digital design technology combined with advanced manufacturing techniques developed in collaboration with auto and aerospace engineers with decades of leadership experience at Boeing, SpaceX and Tesla.

Assembly OSM says it is reinventing the construction of mid-to-high-rise buildings with its digitally-led design and fabrication approach to 10-30 story building construction.

Note that the specs for for the auto and aerospace industry industries are tighter than in building construction. 

Here's the Atlantic Yards mention:

Known for their out-of-the-box design and neighborhood-changing projects, like Barclays Center and The American Copper Buildings, Bill and Chris drew on their decades of experience to create Assembly OSM’s innovative digital technology, engineering advances, and post-modular process. In particular, B2: 461 Dean Street in Brooklyn, North America’s tallest modular residential tower, was built as a solution to meet the high demand for urban housing in NYC. B2 served as inspiration for Assembly OSM, particularly the limitations presented by the conventional approaches used to produce the B2 tower as a constructed product in an offsite facility.

(Emphasis added)

That seems to suggest that there were "conventional approaches" within the unconventional effort to build components offsite. 

That seems likely, as discussed below, but another problem, as well documented and discussed, is that the irregular site and complex design of the tower meant there were too many versions of "mods" used to put together the building.

From the article:

Unlike the Dean Street project, everything in an Assembly OSM building, from concept, to production, delivery and post-occupancy relates back to a single source of product data. This digital platform (inherent in a manufacturing approach) removes crucial information gaps that critically mitigates human error (resulting in a material reduction of time-consuming re-work or contingency utilization) as compared to conventional construction or traditional modular and represents a generational leap forward in applying manufacturing efficiency to the built environment.

It sounds good to say that "everything... relates back to a single source of product data," but that to me recalls the analysis from academic Daniel Cardoso Llach, in Urban Omnibus, that the rhetoric regarding modular "is remarkably slippery," thus papering over the challenges in producing objects.

An unsurprising supporter

The REW article continues:

“I am a big believer in the potential of modular construction at scale in dense urban environments,” said MaryAnne Gilmartin, Founder and CEO of MAG Partners. “From day one, it has been clear that Assembly’s process and platform will upend the way builders and developers do business. There have been a lot of companies over the years that have tried and come up short in utilizing modular construction principles for a broader application. In the end, the technology really matters and that’s why I am betting on Assembly.”

Gilmartin of course worked with SHoP on the Barclays Center and B2, as CEO of Forest City Ratner/Forest City New York. 

Unmentioned: one of the companies that have "come up short" was the one Forest City innovated and founded, claiming to have "cracked the code" regarding modular.

Also see Archinect's 10/26/21 article, Assembly OSM unveils its first modular apartment unit built using car and airplane assembly techniques:

As stated in the company’s press release, “Assembly OSM’s digital manufacturing techniques, and its ecosystem of qualified suppliers, were built with developers in mind, for mid-to-high-rise buildings that produce higher margins and forecastable timelines while significantly improving quality.”

A comment posted from "monosierra":

Interesting! Maybe the lessons learned from Atlantic Yards and Katerra have led to this.

The "patented clipping mechanism" sounds intriguing. With Atlantic Yards, a lot of problems stemmed from the modules not aligning properly on site, leading to jams further up the supply chain that negated benefits from modular building. With Katerra ... well, they simply never reached the economies of scale necessary for such mass production to be profitable.