04 Develop
Advance frameworks for modular teams, including predevelopment tools; pooled owner groups for collective, large-scale orders; and streamlined existing-conditions processes.
Factories need steady orders, but most housing in Baltimore is still bought one project at a time, through design-bid-build. Develop is how BMOD helps developers and community development organizations across the region plan projects that suit offsite construction, and pool their demand.
Outcomes we are working toward
Friction-reducing tools for emerging developers
Aggregated orders that give owners the advantages of scale
Existing-conditions process taxonomy
Offsite, onsite and logistics team capabilities database
Demand aggregation, in plain words
Demand aggregation means coordinating demand from private developers and public agencies, so manufacturers can invest with less risk. When many small projects are pooled into one steady pipeline, a manufacturer can plan production with confidence. Each project then gains from standard parts.
Projects
Develop is where BMOD’s projects live. Each project page lists the activities it involves.
EPA Region 3 Thriving Communities: planning, now complete. Impact · Design · Make · Develop · Work
Carrollton Ridge Housing Strategy: advising U Empower of Maryland on a neighborhood housing plan. Impact · Design · Make · Develop · Work
More projects will appear here as their owners agree to be named.
On your project
Predevelopment support. BMOD gives owners, chiefly CDOs and emerging developers, project-specific services:
System integration for an industrialized approach: from day one, BMOD integrates the context a housing strategy depends on (the properties, the households, the market and costs, the funding programs and the City and State agencies) to explore industrialized, large-scale, holistic solutions. In later phases, this can extend to an owner’s representative role for a modular team approach, with suggestions from BMOD’s future list of vetted firms for the owner to consider.
Mapping and research: parcel-by-parcel research, with advice on property acquisition and development: property conditions; context, including land use, zoning, incentive program boundaries and household characteristics; the acquisition route for each property; industrialized fit, meaning which houses and lots suit industrialized methods and where they can be grouped into orders large enough for production at scale; and phased acquisition and construction plans.
Planning strategy: the overall program for the project, the first of WBDG’s two levels of programming: the owner’s and partners’ goals, building types, uses, market and costs with factory-built and site-built compared, and the number and mix of homes in each phase, with a rough budget for each phase.
Initial programming: the space program for each home type, WBDG’s second level: a space list, areas, adjacencies, functional requirements and a budget check. It sets which standardized configurations fit, and it is what the owner’s architect designs from.
Existing-conditions protocols: BMOD’s recommended protocols, which partner firms always carry out (laser scanning, digital twin modeling, initial structural screening, mapping, stabilization, partial demolition, and utilities and streets, with structural review by the engineer of record).
Procurement planning: pooled owner groups that organize owners and their scattered projects into collective, large-scale orders, pooling each project with others into a tranche of orders that a manufacturer can price and build.
Funding pathway research and grant support: identifying funding programs for each phase and supporting the owner’s applications.
Who should get in touch
Developers and community development organizations (CDOs), mission-driven builders, lenders, and public agencies with sites or programs.