New Construction Technique for USF Dormitory

There was a recent article in Tampa Bay Online by Yvette Hammett, linked here, dealing with new dorms going up at the University of South Florida. Other than my normal interest in the goings on at my alma mater was the construction methodology for the project. Tampa-based CBG Building Co., plans to use a system developed by Denver-based Prescient Co., Inc., where segments of the building are designed and pre-constructed off site and then shipped to the site for installation.  The dormitory project consists of a 6 story parking garage and a 6 story dormitory with 500 apartment style units. A quote from the article notes that this type of construction may be expandable to different types of projects and explains what makes this building system so different is this: “We don’t construct our building,” said Prescient CEO Satyen Patel. “We assemble it.” The process involves three companies — one for software development, one that heads up the manufacturing technology and one that installs the products on site, Patel said. “We deliver a post, a panel and a truss. Those are the three finished goods that come out of our manufacturing system and get assembled on site. We can go taller than timber and substantially less expensive than concrete.”

Patel said the Florida market will be big for his company for several reasons: the projects work well for senior living facilities, Prescient serves the higher density market and its system works well for in fill construction because it doesn’t require a large staging area like traditional construction does, Patel said.

The original intent in going to this system was to meet an August 2016 completion date. It will be interesting to see the progress on this project and if that schedule is met.