This is not a story about creating housing for the homeless, although it could be. It’s about cutting some of the expense of construction by recycling maritime shipping containers. A company doing just that was featured in April in a NY Times interview that Vivian Marino conducted with Paul M. Galvin.
“Mr. Galvin, 52, is the chairman, chief executive and a founder of SG Blocks, a publicly traded company that repurposes maritime-grade steel cargo shipping containers into green building blocks for use in commercial, industrial and residential building construction. The containers are provided by ConGlobal Industries, a partner.”
Galvin says, “I had gotten into real estate development through a charity that I co-founded and was involved in running, and we were developing housing programs for individuals and families with AIDS. So we had to figure out a way to give them continuum care — we had to get good at real estate. And we started to develop affordable housing.
“If you’ve ever done any development in New York, you know that the construction process is not always as predictable as you would like, and so I saw this as a way to create a sustainable alternative in the marketplace and eliminate some of the risk of site-base construction. …
“We’re doing a restaurant today — Do you know Bareburger? — in Oyster Bay Cove. It’s an 11-container restaurant, so around 2,300 square feet. We just did the first seven containers between 8 o’clock and 12 o’clock today. And then tomorrow morning the last four will come. And the building will be closed in a day and a half. …
“We meet or exceed all of the structural codes. … We’ve really approached this as an engineered building system. Every building system has some constrictions. Every product and every site works for containers. I would say that within reason we’ve been able to date to create the structure and the space plan that the structure affords.”
More here.
Photo: SG Blocks
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
Shipping containers can, in the right hands, be turned into truly stunning homes. The trouble is….where can you put them? Most covenants and codes in our area (Boulder CO) don’t allow them. Plus, as anyone in the development business will tell you, the toughest part about building anything isn’t the actual construction…that’s the fun part. The difficult, expensive, time consuming part is getting the entitlements, which is nearly impossible in a close-in location. Nimby’s (not in my back yard) rule, and how many people do you know who would welcome a container home in their neighborhood? It’s a conundrum.
How great to have your practical insight, Caroline! Thank you.