Each year, manufactured and modular housing industry members who have demonstrated extraordinary leadership in the areas of product design, customer service and creative solutions are honored with awards from the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) during its Congress and Expo. The MHI design awards recognize excellence and encourage innovation in modular and manufactured home design and production.
This year, the MHI Design Award for Manufactured Home Design – Multi-section was awarded to Gary Atchison, the Engineering Manager at Palm Harbor Homes in Millersburg, Oregon, for his home design, The Lakeport. MHI award winners are chosen by their peers and a panel of industry experts.
The design goal for the Lakeport model and the Northwest market was to overcome the industry-wide difficulty of constructing sidewalls with pronounced features and extended eaves that create a more “site built” look without interfering with shipping width restrictions. With the redesign of a single truss that allowed for multiple bearing points, Gary and Palm Harbor developed this 1,343 square foot, 3 bedroom, 2 bath model manufactured home that features 24” eave overhangs, boxed-out windows and selectively recessed sidewall and entry areas.
Like the exterior, the Lakeport interior is well-appointed with 9’ flat ceilings, 80” tall windows, horizon windows, a concealed flat screen TV niche, sliding barn doors and a 50” electric fireplace. The main living area is designed to provide the homeowner with maximum square footage while recessing the secondary bedrooms to contribute to the exterior relief. Overall, the resulting design is an attractive home that is difficult to differentiate from site-built. Recently, the Lakeport was taken to market in the expensive Seattle, Washington, area at $75 per square foot, delivered. That is less than half the price of a comparable site-built home in the area.
Every phase of the design process was focused was on building a home that would appeal to customers who had never before considered a manufactured home. The appealing Lakeport model has the ability to turn the “need” for a new home into a “want,” causing homebuyers to pursue a new construction method they might not have otherwise considered.
“The MHI award recipients exemplify how far the industry has come just in the past year, and where we are headed,” said MHI President & CEO Richard Jennison. This new Lakeport design certainly demonstrates the ingenuity and adaptability of Palm Harbor manufactured homes to serve as an affordable answer to America’s housing needs.
Tags: design, innovation, manufactured homes, MHI
