Easy pieces: Marmol Radziner Prefab Inc. makes high-end custom homes, but in prefabricated modular mode.

SOME startups can trace their origins to a thrilling moment of inspiration or victory, but Marmol Radziner Prefab Inc. isn't one of them.

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The genesis of the nearly 2-year-old company, which designs and builds custom prefabricated homes, can actually be found in defeat.

In 2003, the architecture and design magazine Dwell invited a select group of architects from around the country, including the Los Angeles-based team of Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner, to participate in a prefab design competition. Marmol and Radziner had high hopes their entry would be chosen, but ultimately a team from New York won out.

While the architects were disappointed, the experience left them with a newfound appreciation of prefab construction.

"Prefabrication offers a viable alternative to our traditional delivery system, which is inefficient and very expensive," said Mannol. who with Radziner, has designed and built custom homes using traditional construction methods for 18 years.

Prefab houses provide not only cost efficiencies during the construction process, according to Marmol, but also employ a process that is more environmentally friendly than traditional construction methods. The architects were so thoroughly convinced of the benefits of prefab housing that soon after the competition; they designed a prefab home in Desert Hot Springs for Marmol and his wife.

The 2,000-square-foot weekend home was completed in August 2005, and since then it has received critical acclaim and been featured in several publications. But the project was not without frustration.

While Marmol and Radziner designed the house, it was built by an outside company. "In that experience we understood we need to take control of the manufacturing process." Marmol said.

And having total control over their projects is the norm for the architects. Their firm, Marmol Radziner and Associates, has both a design and construction division that has allowed the pair to exercise complete autonomy over many of their projects.

In order to guarantee the workmanship behind their prefab units and have complete control over the process that produces them, Marmol and Radziner, along with real estate developer Eric Johnson founded Marmol Radziner Prefab in October 2005.

The hub of the company is a 65,000-square-foot factory in the city of Vernon, where 76 workers are involved in building and outfitting the steel frame modular units, or "mods," that serve as core building blocks for the prefab homes.

"There are some real fundamental advantages that you get from this process," said Johnson, chief executive of MRP, "such as a quality product that can be built more quickly and purchased for a fixed price."

The MRP factory in Vernon recently completed the assembly process on its second project, a 10, 000-square-foot home made up of 36 different mods that is being delivered to a site in Las Vegas. The third project, a 16-mod house to be delivered to Santa Cruz, is currently being assembled on the factory floor.

The factory manufactures ]nods no more than 12 feet wide. allowing them to be transported through the streets without the need for special accommodations. They are a little over 13 feet high. While width and height are family standard, mod lengths vary and can reach 55 feet.

It takes 32 days for a single rood to be completed, after making its way through a sort of assembly line consisting of 16 different work stations, each spending two days on the project. At the first work station the steel frame of a mod is built, with additional elements added at each successive station. Mods are delivered to installations sites, almost tully completed, with not only walls and floors, but also plumbing, electrical wiring, windows, cabinets and appliances already installed.

While the high-end nature of their projects would seem at odds with concerns about time, cost or the environment, Marmol nonetheless says efficiencies in those areas are a guiding element of their prefab units.

From the date an order is placed, it takes six to eight months for the company to deliver completed mods to an installation site. It usually takes tour to six weeks for the roods to be bolted together and installed at a site.

Marmol said the construction process is much shorter than for a custom built home. which could easily take over 12 months. And there are the cost benefits.

While non-prefab custom built homes can cost from $500 to $700 a square foot, the cost of an MRP home ranges between $325 and $375 a square foot, including installation costs.

"Custom homes have never been able to provide a fixed cost for their production," Marmol said. "To imagine a customized prefab home with fixed costs is staggering when you compare it to all the uncertainty and unpredictability of on-site building."

Still, the prefabricated homes are hardly cheap, with a tiny 660-square-foot-base model going for $211,800. "Our product is not about being the least expensive out there," Mannol said.

Allison Arieff, former editor of Dwell and author of the book "Prefab," said Marmol and Radziner are apart of a group of architects, including Jennifer Siegal of Los Angeles, who have adopted the prefab construction model on their own terms.

"The prefab industry does not have the greatest reputation in terms of design and quality," Arieff said. "Based on this fact, several modern aesthetic architects decided they would only get the desired quality and design elements by doing it themselves."

Arieff added that MRP stands out in the marketplace because its projects are decidedly more upscale than some of the other offerings and appeal to a more "sophisticated clientele."

There are also environmental benefits to the prefab construction process by having all labor and material centralized in one location, according to Marmol. "'There is a higher degee of planning in a factory and that planning delivers much less waste," he said.

Going green

While Marmol and Radziner have been designing and building homes for a number of years, it is the factory that distinguishes this venture from anything they have done before.

"A business like MRP is very different than a service industry company. It is a manufacturing company where you need a whole factory from the beginning," Marmol said.

The partners have so far invested $5 million in the venture, and admit they have not yet turned a profit. The company is hoping to achieve profitability by in part expanding its product base beyond single-family detached homes. MRP is currently in the middle of preliminary' discussions regarding commercial buildings. small office structures and a religious center.

Still, Marmol admits MRP has many challenges to face if its vision of the future is to prevail.

"Our society has been uncomfortable thinking about the home as a product," he said. "But MRP houses are products that can stand independent of the uncertainties of the construction process and be thought of as toasters."

Marmol Radziner Prefab Inc.

Founded: October 2005

Core Business: Design and construction of prefabricated housing units

Employees in 2007: 76

Employees in 2006: 36

Goals: To create an environmentally friendly and profitable process for the construction and delivery of prefabricated buildings 

Driving Force: Growing market of property owners who want less expensive custom homes

BY DREW COMBS

Staff Reporter