Business
& Labor
Concrete-Home Manufacturers Gear Up for Production in N.O.
(archrecord.construction.com - 08/15/2006)
By Angelle
Bergeron
In July two builders of concrete homes
opened facilities in New Orleans to meet the tremendous housing
need following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Advanced Building
Systems has licensed the product line of M2Emmedue of Fano,
Italy, and opened a factory in the suburb of Kenner, while
Green Sandwich Technologies of North Hollywood, California,
opened in eastern New Orleans. Both companies manufacture
foam panels tucked in galvanized steel mesh and coated in
concrete that can be made according to architects’ and
engineers’ specifications. They tout resulting structures
are touted as more energy-efficient, cost-effective, and wind-resistant
than wood-frame or brick construction.
Tony Fernandez, Advanced’s vice
president in charge of development, says the product line
has been used to manufacture more than 80,000 homes. This
is the first effort to manufacture the M2 panels in the U.S.
Fernandez adds that Advanced was negotiating to establish
a factory in Florida, but relocated to Louisiana due to the
loss of housing stock there and in Mississippi.
Green Sandwich, which has manufacturing
facilities in California, New Mexico, Missouri, and Utah,
was invited to New Orleans by a group of developers, says
spokesperson Cathy Kim. Those developers are expected to announce
a development of over 1,000 homes in the Lower Ninth Ward
in the coming weeks.
Eric Fulton, spokesperson for
the National Association of Home Builders, says that concrete
homes have caught on since the early 1990s, particularly in
hurricane-prone Florida.
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