Modular construction technology — assembling entire buildings from sections that are prefabricated miles from a building site — is changing the skyline of Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe this week, as a new five-story apartment project takes shape literally within days.

Blue Room Housing, a Denver developer doing affordable mixed-use communities, began stacking units like that Thursday for an affordable housing project at West Eighth Avenue and Inca Street, a block east of Santa Fe Drive near the heart of the art district.

Time savings

With the time savings created by modular construction, Blue Room House One could top off at its full five-story height early next week.

The project is designed to house residents earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income, according to investor group Blue Room Investing.

Minyoung Sohn, Blue Room’s founder, said the rapid assembly was a new way of thinking about how housing is delivered, smarter and more efficient.

“We believe everyone who works full time should be able to afford a place to call home, and we’re committed to building models that make that possible,” Sohn told a crowd assembled at the launch Thursday.

“The Santa Fe Arts District is one of Denver’s most culturally significant neighborhoods,” Hilary Cooper, director of Innovative Funding for Housing Programs at the state’s Office of Economic Development & International Trade, said in a statement timed with the launch.

Rising housing costs

“But rising housing costs have made it increasingly difficult for many artists, educators, service workers and longtime residents to remain in the community.”

The builder of the project is RISE Modular, based in Plymouth, Minn., where unit modules are fabricated, then shipped to Denver.

“By closely aligning the design with a volumetric modular strategy, we were able to unlock manufacturing efficiencies, maximize a tight urban site and create a more predictable delivery process,” said Christian Lawrence, RISE Modular’s founder and CEO, in a news release.

He added that modular assembly reduces total construction time by an estimated 30% to 40%.

The project, according to a Blue Room spokesperson, is estimated at $17.35 million and will yield 54 apartments, along with 3,000 square feet of retail space and a single-story podium deck. Studio K2 Architecture designed the project.

Last month, a builder topped off an even larger apartment project using modular construction a mile west in Denver’s Sun Valley neighborhood south of Empower Field. At West Holden Place, a building was assembled to its six-story height in just seven days.

Energy savings

The builder of that 77-unit project, Adam Berger, told The Denver Gazette that cabinets, countertops, lighting and electrical panels come preassembled into the modules when they arrive at the site. He estimates the construction time savings on that project as between 20% and 40% better than conventional building construction of that scale.

Part of the savings in the technique, Berger noted, are in energy and environmental performance levels resulting from a controlled construction environment in which modular units are fabricated.

Colorado agencies estimate that state’s shortfall of available housing units at 106,000, a number that requires construction of 34,100 homes a year to bridge.