Container House

I had lunch with a developer who is using 35 shipping containers to build a 7-story condo complex in downtown SLC. The containers have little value after being shipped full of Chinese goods to America - we don't export enough to use them, the Asians don't want them back empty, so they are piling up by the millions. See City Center Lofts here.

Each container is 8' wide, 9.5' high and 40' long. They are designed to stack nine high and withstand turbulent seas, which apparently, makes them earthquake-safe if you happen to build a seven-layer condo out of them in the middle of a fault zone like Salt Lake. All the strength is in the corners and frame, so you can cut out the side panels and doors and voila, you have industrial strength legos that you can live in.

Many come with teak wood floors (I am not making this up), but the developer plans to pour concrete for pipes that will circulate radiant heat in his super eco-friendly complex. He has multiple deposits and a waiting list of 40 for the seven units, although he hasn't revealed pricing yet. He figures he'll either make a mint or go bankrupt. "Just breaking even doesn't seem like an option to first-time condo developers," he said.

By the way, the containers are being retrofitted out-of-state as we speak and will be shipped to Utah in February. By April, he says, the condos will be ready to inhabit.

Here's more on the architect, Adam Kalkin: