Our Favorite Houses: Prefab Perfection
Cheerful color and architecture in Indy’s newest prefabricated community. Tony Valainis
When architect Ursula David began building on 10th Street just east of downtown eight years ago, commuters would pass an empty lot on their way to work and see a full home in the same spot on their way home. David’s prefabricated Indy Mod Homes are built in a factory, trucked here, and erected in four hours. Completion with concrete siding takes a couple months. Both the environmentally friendly aspects and clean lines of prefab homes attracted Sherron and Tyrone Rogers when they wanted to build downtown a few years ago. They had just seen an exhibit on prefab design at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago when they met with David, not knowing she was moving in that direction. “We got really excited, but didn’t think there was anything like that in Indy,” Sherron says.
Inside Story
There isn’t a lot of communal living space for the couple and their two children, but an L-shaped floor plan creates the privacy they all need. The master is tucked away from the living room and kitchen on the main level, and the kids have the upstairs to themselves. A stair railing of floor-to-ceiling cables keep the main area from feeling closed off. They replicated the cables on an outdoor screen, too, working with designer Chris Stuart on the al fresco living space.
