Building the Next Generation of California Classrooms

Our History. We came to the California Classroom market through commercial real estate where our founders helped start what is now the world’s largest industrial Real Estate Investment Trust, Prologis. Our entire career was driven by successfully finding, funding, building, developing and operating real estate that appreciated over time. We have a long and very successful track record in finding, valuing and understanding the economics of real estate and commercial construction, skills that will serve us well in the quickly developing market for Classrooms in California.

As population growth continues making many urban areas increasingly less affordable for many families the needs for schools changed as population dynamics shift regionally. In Los Angeles for example, classrooms located in one part of the city are empty while others are struggling with larger class sizes. It turns out, those “relocatable bungalows” were not easily relocated after all. And, that low cost? Well it turns out school districts spent significantly to maintain quality of already poorly constructed boxes – in many cases upwards of $300/foot. And, at the end of their useful life (well beyond the 10-year manufacturer’s life term), these “real estate assets” are pushed into a landfill clarifying that they are not assets but instead are liabilities for districts faced with an aging population of truly distressed liabilities now slated for disposal to avoid the mounting maintenance costs. 

That problem is the real opportunity. The hard truth is, portable classrooms, what we call “Bungalows”, are cheap to acquire but incredibly expensive to operate and maintain. They are nothing more than poorly functioning boxes that do nothing more than house students in ugly boxes. They are noisy, poorly insulated, racked and dated. That got us thinking. What are the characteristics of a building system that could turn these liabilities into a long-term asset? In other words, could we make a building that could meet the stringent needs of our students, parents and educators, and retain its value or even appreciate over time? What are the characteristics of a “Future-Proof building”?

Relocatable. One of the biggest challenges school district face is the changing population dynamics of the communities they serve. In many cases permanent facilities built when communities are developing cannot evolve as changes occur because there is no effective way to easily relocate a classroom from one part of a campus to another let alone across town from one school to another. Yet the changing population dynamics often render schools unable to keep pace with changes. To solve this, buildings need to be easily relocatable, allowing us to take property located “here” and move it over “there” to better serve the needs of students, parents and teachers.

Temporary to Permanent. Another challenge for schools is they rely on summer building to get around the challenges of building concurrent with student activities during the school year. This creates a challenging situation for schools trying to accommodate both ongoing student learning and new construction. That consideration makes relocation even more important because schools can buy new classrooms and put there “here” to use temporarily while putting more permanent solutions in place. When they are ready, they can simply and easily relocate their classrooms to accomplish the new campus layout. 

Long Life. School districts actually buy classrooms that they throw away years later. These classrooms came into existence to help solve what was supposed to be short term challenges with class sizes and student / teacher ratios. They were originally sold as a 10-year life span but many of the more than 250,000 bungalows that are still deployed across California are approaching 50-years old. At the end of their life this “real estate” is disposed of at great expense. That means over the life of a typical “portable” or “bungalow” the costs to a school district far exceed the “least cost” purchase price. Some estimates put the lifetime cost of installation, maintenance, upkeep, repair and disposal at more than $300,000 – all for a product that operates (at best) inefficiently, does not meet student needs and is very costly to maintain. 

IMS Classrooms are 100-year rated buildings and are expected to appreciate over time. That means our “expensive” classrooms will maintain or increase in value over time. 

Flexibility. Buildings are not designed to be flexible. In general, they are immovable, permanent structures and any flexibility must be incorporated at the building design phase. 

Since our classrooms are 90% built in a factory each one is completely self-contained. That means you can add a second story or take the second story off and redeploy it when your needs change. At IMS we have designed and built classrooms that can be expanded or contracted to meet changing student demographics. And it is an asset that will provide a school or university an ever-increasing return on investment. If you have an IMS Classroom, you will also find a resale market should you decide you cannot use your classrooms in a different setting.

Sustainable. Classrooms are well used and must be built with the same sustainable features we have come to expect from traditional stick build real estate. Despite the claims of sustainability, wood frame portable classrooms are destined for a landfill, faster than you might imagine – you can buy any one for $1 from many school districts throughout California. 

A steel frame IMS classroom has sustainability designed in. It can be relocated to a new location and/or transformed to accommodate an alternative use, sustaining its economic benefit to its owners and the community it serves. It is constructed largely from recycled materials, features a proprietary energy efficient HVAC system, is extremely well insulated and can self-generate the majority of its own electricity with the inclusion of solar roof panels. In summary, an IMS building is environmentally responsible and resource efficient. 

 Resilient. Earthquakes in California are inevitable. But for schools, they don’t have to be disasters. According to a comprehensive study by the United States Geologic Survey, scientists have determined that the chances of having one or more magnitude 6.7 or greater earthquakes in California over the next 20 years is greater than 99%!

“Given the inevitability, schools and universities need to ask themselves whether they have adequately factored resiliency into their facility plans,” says Craig Severance, a co-founder of iMod Structures. "We can prevent the next big one from turning into a disaster by making sure our buildings can recover quickly when it strikes. This is the essence of resiliency — the ability to limit damage and recover quickly from major negative events.”

Resiliency is a relatively new concept. But just as the markets have grown to embrace concepts like LEED Certification which has already gained broad adoption to distinguish a building’s level of sustainability, we envision resiliency certification achieving the same stature. The US Resiliency Council (USRC) was formed specifically to advocate this concept. And their first step in this quest is a comprehensive earthquake rating.

The USRC created its Earthquake Building Rating System to provide building owners and facilities managers at schools, hospitals, businesses and other organizations with a reliable, consistent, scientific-based system for gauging a building’s expected performance during an earthquake, including how soon a building will return to full operations after a seismic event. This first-of-its kind performance rating is based on decades of earthquake engineering research and observations of earthquake damage by leading engineering practitioners and seismic experts at major universities and government organizations.

iMod Structures is proud to be the first maker of educational facilities in the country to achieve the USRC’s Platinum Earthquake Rating, their highest resiliency certification.

“We applaud iMod Strutures for joining us in highlighting the need for resilient buildings and classrooms that will withstand the most severe seismic events while keeping their occupants safe,” said Evan Reis, the Executive Director of the United States and Co-Founder of USRC. “USRC is working with iMod Structures to ensure that 21st century California classrooms are not just built to code, but also are resilient.”

Intelligent. At IMS “building-intelligence’ is correlated with longevity and longevity is at the heart of future proofing, the word “intelligence” has not, until recently, been associated with buildings. IMS buildings such as our classrooms can contain building automation systems which enable remote and/or local control of lighting, heating and cooling, ventilation and audio/visual technologies. This intelligence decreases operating costs, provides for a healthy learning environment and improves the educational experience. 

From Low Cost to Best Value. For many years School Districts throughout California defaulted to the “Low Price” award for proposals. The problem that created in Classrooms is the low-price classrooms do not perform as advertised – they are not really relocatable, but even worse they are noisy, expensive to install, operate and maintain and expensive to dispose of. At the end of their life they are a total loss and all sunk costs are lost. As a result, many school districts are now using a Best Value Procurement (BVP), a procurement system that considers factors other than (only) price, such as quality and expertise, when selecting vendors or contractors.

In a best value system, the value of procured goods or services can be simply described as a comparison of costs and benefits. A contractor or vendor is thus selected through a process of researching the vendors or contractors before a detailed project plan is made. The principle enables the contracting authority to take account of criteria that reflect qualitative, technical and sustainable aspects of the tender submission as well as price when reaching an award decision. The BVP approach is based on the conviction that minimizing risks or eliminating risks when allocated information is effectively used for a proper choice. This means the more information that is available and the better it is utilized, the better the future can be predicted and the fewer decisions or risks have to be made.

IMS Classrooms should appreciate in value over time because they are easy to install or remove, truly relocatable, inexpensive to operate and maintain. IMS’ heavy steel, moment frame is constructed of new, heavy tube steel and is the building block of our system. Each 320-square foot iMod frame contains approximately six tons of steel. This 100-year frame will withstand the most rigorous seismic conditions imposed by DSA and is fitted out with state-of-the-art building systems to create classrooms that will accommodate advances in next generation teaching technology for decades to come. 

IMS is committed to providing the education market – from K-12 schools to leading community colleges and the largest universities – with long-life, high performance classrooms design specifically as healthy and sustainable 21st Century learning environments. Contact us today and we’ll help you sort through options and pricing.

Contact us to help with your schools needs for relocatable, resilient & sustainable classrooms that appreciate in value at [email protected].