Belle Sherman - Toby Millman

I spoke with Toby.  He is developing Belle Sherman Cottages which will be modular homes built by Simplex.  He shared with me some lessons learned:

1) simple small modular homes are most cost effective.  Belle Sherman is what he calls middle of the road in its footprint and he plans to use a narrower footprint in the future. 2) The more that can be done at the factory the better you can control cost because it can cut down finish costs  3) The fewer marriage walls the better (where modules come together).  3) to minimize transportation costs from factory to site a simple but essential rule is modules that are under 16 ft wide are most cost effective.

He is interested in seeing EcoVillage and I have set up a meeting on Friday at 9am at FROG Common House.  He graduated from Cornell in 1992 and heard about EcoVillage at the time.  Goals:  Share about EcoVillage.  Talk about his experiences with local construction management and who locally is good.  Talk about his experience preparing the Belle Sherman site and costs.  Talk about his experiences with local builders.  Why modular vs local builders?  Talk about his experiences in sourcing funds for his projects in Ithaca.