Our innovative modular housing solution based on shipping containers was a rapid response to the lack of available worker housing during the Eagleford Shale boom. Prefabrication from sustainable resources made the project feasible, and its rugged industrial character suits the site – familiar as a westbound train in the distant landscape.
When exploration in the massive Eagleford formation reached its peak in the 2010s, the influx of workers created unprecedented pressure on housing markets in the small towns from Victoria to Laredo. In a scenario familiar to this workforce, many endured makeshift accommodations in cramped trailers, ramshackle camps, pop-up RV parks and “hot bunk” houses, a substandard housing arrangement where sleeping/living spaces are shared on a shift basis.
Encinal Development sought to remedy the situation by building on-site housing to suit. However, options for on-site construction were constrained by availability of materials and skilled labor (hours away, and too expensive, due to competition with drilling operations). To mitigate the circumstance, our innovative project at 700 Berry Street pivoted to offsite prefabrication of housing modules from re-purposed shipping containers. Assembly-line exterior finishing and interior retrofits of ISO-standard shipping containers were fabricated in San Antonio, about 2 hours to the northeast on I-35. Streamlined quality control, delivery time, and cost were keys to success within the project’s fast-track schedule and goals for economy.
Lately, shipping container retrofits are nothing new. That said, this site-specific application was uniquely well-aligned, both for its resourcefulness and for its austere, contemporary aesthetic, earning a Studio Award from the Texas Society of Architects (Texas AIA) in 2012.
2012 | Texas Architects Studio Awards, AIA/Texas Society of Architects
2013
Encinal, Texas
31,960 SF
Cost withheld
2446 Encinal Development, LP
1512 South Flores St.
San Antonio, TX 78204
210.227.2612
