Minnesota – Acceleration through Education and Standard Award Criteria Case Study
Industrialized Housing Delivery in the U.S.: Recommendations for State and Local Governments
As Commissioner of Minnesota Housing from 2011-2019, Mary Tingerthal realized the potential benefits of the greater adoption of industrialized construction techniques and identified the regulatory barriers impeding adoption. As such, after completing her tenure as Commissioner, Tingerthal established Construction Revolution as a non-governmental entity focused on accelerating offsite construction for housing in Minnesota. In 2019, Tingerthal convened the Construction Revolution Summit, a cross-sector collaboration aimed at reducing the cost of housing by creating an innovation hub for offsite construction. This event brought together international, national, and regional thought leaders to share best offsite practices, with over 100 key stakeholders representing all segments of Minnesota’s housing sector. Through a series of workshops at the summit, followed by months of refinement, Construction Revolution developed a Summit Report and Action Plan for Minnesota, published in June 2020, which includes: (1) launching multi-sector innovation cohorts, (2) developing and promoting learning opportunities, (3) fostering local collaboration, (4) incentivizing a series of pilot projects, and (5) attracting modular manufacturers and investors.
This effort encouraged the establishment of Rise Modular, a new volumetric modular factory in the Twin Cities region. After establishing a clear and concise action plan, Construction Revolution partnered with the Family Housing Fund and MOD X to develop an interactive Offsite Accelerator program. In addition to a series of educational sessions, Construction Revolution and MOD X worked with accelerator participants to conceptualize real-world applications of these principles to current project initiatives. A key outcome of this course was the development of an innovative pilot project by the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) to utilize offsite construction for housing, delivering 84 units of deeply affordable housing across 16 scattered sites in Minneapolis. To encourage IHD, the standard award criteria of the project RFP encouraged an integrated form of team-based project delivery for offsite construction where design and engineering, manufacturing, and site work were developed in tandem by an interdisciplinary team from inception. The project was funded through a creative use of HUD’s tenant-based voucher program and leveraged recent zoning reforms to gently densify existing neighborhoods while avoiding any displacement. This highly effective project identified and overcame a major barrier to offsite construction by eliminating a lack of early coordination and clear scope delineation among stakeholders.