Winter Park Workforce Housing

Award Criteria

Architectural Excellence

Winter Park Workforce Housing consists of two – four (4) Story modular buildings, totaling 192 modules, 116,252 sq ft. The project consists of 288 dormitory style living units, 44 studio living units with 48 communal bathrooms (144 shower/water closets) and 8 communal kitchen/lounge areas, 2 shared laundry rooms and 2 offices. The building exterior was designed to blend in with the surrounding resort area and natural environment. Much of the employee housing stock prior to this project was outdated with limited forethought in design or durability. This project is the first of many new construction projects for the resort which will include traditional building types (apartments, condos, etc). The Winter Park Workforce Housing project provides much needed housing for seasonal resort employees.

Technical Innovation & Sustainability

Maximizing the time saving benefits of offsite construction for this project was a key goal to ensure rapid and affordable on-site completion. The remote location of one of America’s premier ski resorts, along with the short building season helped drive volumetric modular as a solution. The building materials and building operating systems were selected with longevity in mind while keeping an eye on sustainability. The offsite construction aspect substantially reduced the number of trips to the site for deliveries, and labor while compressing the actual onsite work performance time to less than 15 months. The building utilized LED lighting, low flow plumbing fixtures, Energy Star rated appliances paint and HVAC systems for efficiency requirements. Interior finishes include quartz countertops, TFL Cabinets, and LVT flooring for durability. The exterior finishes completed onsite include stone, cementitious siding and metal accent panels.

Cost Effectiveness

This development was constructed with prefabricated modular units, as part of our never-ending efforts to cut construction costs and save time. Due to the extreme winter conditions, conventional construction methods would have stretched this project into 3-4 years. Driven by the short building season with annual snowfall 344+ inches the team developed a unique project schedule to manage constructions costs. The onsite team broke ground in June 2022 and closed the site just 4.5 months later with civil, utilities and building slabs in place. Nashua Builders commenced production in January 2023. The building site was re-opened in March 2023 as modules began arriving in preparation for installation in May. Building 1 was installed in 9 days in May and building 2 was installed in 4 days in July. This allowed exteriors to be completed in the summer months while completion of the interior areas was happening inside. The first residents began moving in at Thanksgiving 2023