Discuss Detroit » Archives - January 2008 » Want To Live In A Shipping Container? « Previous Next »
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Nyct
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Username: Nyct

Post Number: 95
Registered: 01-2007
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 10:55 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs .dll/article?AID=/20080513/BUS INESS04/805130314
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Tiorted
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Username: Tiorted

Post Number: 141
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 10:57 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

quote:

Prices will range from about $100,000 to around $190,000.



this project has zero chance of succeeding
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Johnlodge
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Username: Johnlodge

Post Number: 6616
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 11:02 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I think it's kind of cool, and would be a very Detroit-style place to live. This isn't the first I've heard of this type of development, I saw projects like this on TV in the past.
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Rsa
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Username: Rsa

Post Number: 1474
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 11:07 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

quote:

this project has zero chance of succeeding



you have an actual solid information to back that up, or are you just criticizing developers for actually trying to do something?
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Jonnyfive
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Username: Jonnyfive

Post Number: 135
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 11:10 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Pre-fab shipping containers or pre-fab concrete slabs like at the new apartments at Woodward and Forest? Personally, I think the shipping container rendering looks better and it even uses recycled materials. If it doesn't sell, it'll be for reasons other than an aversion to living in building made of recycled metal.
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Barnesfoto
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Username: Barnesfoto

Post Number: 5068
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 11:11 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

If people are willing to pay money for wood boxes made of chipboard, with a bit of plastic stapled around the outside, why wouldn't they pay money for a metal box?
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Detroitstar
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Username: Detroitstar

Post Number: 1109
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 11:13 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Friends of my family in Copenhagen, Denmark live in reused shipping containers. Their home is just as modern and as comfortable, and perhaps even a bit more open than my own. I think this would be an interesting concep to explore in Detroit.
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Waymooreland
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Username: Waymooreland

Post Number: 57
Registered: 11-2007
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 11:16 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That's cool as hell. When I first read the topic, I thought the same thing as Tiorted, but after seeing the rendering and the photos of existing "Container City" projects, I actually really like it!

(Message edited by waymooreland on May 13, 2008)
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Mwilbert
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Username: Mwilbert

Post Number: 225
Registered: 11-2007
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 11:17 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

http://www.containercity.com/

This isn't an untried idea, just new to Detroit.
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Rsa
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Username: Rsa

Post Number: 1475
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 11:18 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

if anybody wants to see what it looks like in person, there's a small model/example inside MOCAD right now. the exhibit runs until 7/28.
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Nyct
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Username: Nyct

Post Number: 96
Registered: 01-2007
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 11:23 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

i think it's a fantastic idea, especially from a developers standpoint. $1.8 million??? There's a potential to turn that into a lot more.

Even the doubters have to admit that a development like this is at least slightly better than one burnt out house on an entire square block.
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Johnlodge
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Username: Johnlodge

Post Number: 6617
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 11:24 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

quote:

If people are willing to pay money for wood boxes made of chipboard, with a bit of plastic stapled around the outside, why wouldn't they pay money for a metal box?



Haha, you are SO right, Barnes. And watch all your friends come running over when there's a Tornado warning.
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E_hemingway
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Username: E_hemingway

Post Number: 1678
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 11:31 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Actually, I am little surprised they're trying to pull this off as a for-sale development. I thought that style of housing and that location near Wayne State would make it more an ideal place for rentals.
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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 544
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 12:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

If nothing else; dig a hole...drop in a shipping container - presto: instant storm (and marijuana-riot) shelter!
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Wolverine
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Username: Wolverine

Post Number: 457
Registered: 04-2004
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 12:37 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I might of seen something similar to this in Architectural Record. It actually did look pretty nice. Although for $190,000, I hope spaces aren't all that confined.
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Evelyn
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Username: Evelyn

Post Number: 229
Registered: 02-2005
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 12:44 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The pictures from the link look neat, but I have to ask the dumb question: how are these things to heat and cool? Are they easy to insulate and vent? I just see them getting very stuffy in a humid Michigan summer.
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Erikto
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Username: Erikto

Post Number: 701
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 12:53 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I didn't see the pictures, but this idea has of course been tried. I was laughed at when I thought of this out loud when I worked on a loading dock, and a decade later (two weeks ago, actually) I was looking at a web page of cutting edge architecture, and there it was, a shipping container housing development. Containers are 20 and 40 feet long, standardized for trains and trucks.
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Jonnyfive
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Username: Jonnyfive

Post Number: 137
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 12:58 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"presto: instant storm (and marijuana-riot) shelter!"

Awesome. Gannon is convinced the marijuana riot is nearly upon us.
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Rustic
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Username: Rustic

Post Number: 3242
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 1:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

How terribly terribly sad:
quote:

there are 700,000 empty shipping containers piling up near U.S. ports around the country, including at a yard near Fort and I-75 in Detroit. The containers tend to be cheaper to build new than to return to their country of origin, so once delivered here and emptied, they pile up by the thousands.



brings to mind the words of Shelley:
quote:

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings
Look on my works ye mighty and despair!
Nothing beside remains: but the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
and the level lone sands stretch far away.

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Johnlodge
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Username: Johnlodge

Post Number: 6621
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 1:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yeah, and it's wasteful too.
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Johnlodge
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Username: Johnlodge

Post Number: 6622
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 1:08 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Look at this house made from shipping containers:





You can't even tell. They put vinyl siding on it, which really camoflauges it.
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Chuckjav
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Username: Chuckjav

Post Number: 546
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 1:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Rustic....

Sadly, the (real) reason shipping containers tend not to return to point-of-origin speaks more to the horrendous trade imbalance between the US and our so-called trading partners.
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Mwilbert
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Username: Mwilbert

Post Number: 226
Registered: 11-2007
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 1:31 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Sadly, the (real) reason shipping containers tend not to return to point-of-origin speaks more to the horrendous trade imbalance between the US and our so-called trading partners."

There was some truth to this, but not so much right now. This is from the April 10th Wall Street Journal (unfortunately behind paywall)



What has happened now has thrown a wrench into the works. Cutbacks by U.S. consumers have slowed the growth of imports, while the weak dollar is making the U.S. into an export machine. Meanwhile, the places where most of these exports are originating are far from where boxes are being unpacked and soaring energy costs make it too costly to just load them on trucks and move them around.

"There are some places, particularly in the Midwest, where there's a complete lack of containers," says Philip Damas, the head of container research at Drewry Shipping Consultants in London.
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Dialh4hipster
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Username: Dialh4hipster

Post Number: 2267
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 1:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Looks like someone's been reading their Dwell magazines.

quote:

I might of (sic) seen something similar to this in Architectural Record. It actually did look pretty nice. Although for $190,000, I hope spaces aren't all that confined.



The $190k one is apparently 1920 sf. That's a great value.
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Danny
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Username: Danny

Post Number: 7347
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 1:46 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Shipping containers for condos. Could be a good ideal for the 21st Century.
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Focusonthed
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Username: Focusonthed

Post Number: 1828
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 1:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I'd do it. Talk about unique. And living in a metal box isn't much different than living in a plywood box or a concrete box. Obviously it would be finished (and insulated) inside to your liking.
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Pam
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Username: Pam

Post Number: 4045
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 1:58 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Shipping container refugee housing:

http://www.vestaldesign.com/de sign/shrimp-refugee-housing/
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Rsa
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Username: Rsa

Post Number: 1477
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 1:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

$190,000 is for the largest on. it'll be 3 bedroom, 3 bathrooms. the nice thing about the shipping containers is that the corrugated metal siding is not structural; you can take it out anywhere you want without compromising the integrity of the individual boxes. bedrooms will average about 12ft. x 12ft. the larget unit will have a living/dining area of about 20ft. x 32ft. (four 20ft. boxes put together. all units will have a 6ft. x 16ft. balcony. you can also insulate the boxes to be just as efficient (if not more) as regular housing). if anybody wants to get a feel for how they can be fit out on the inside and out, i strongly encourage you to see the installation at MOCAD.

keep your eye on thepowerofgreenhousing(dot)com for more updates on floorplans and elevations.
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Blueidone
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Username: Blueidone

Post Number: 224
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 2:09 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Pam: That refugee housing looks great! Easy to ship wherever it's needed. Easy to put up. Much better than the "trailers" they used in New Orleans I would think!

What a wonderful idea to use these for housing!
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Troy
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Username: Troy

Post Number: 227
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 2:27 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I love this project. I was hoping to do one in the future as well for a personal residential project. There are a lot of great sites out there with concepts and actual builds. This would be a great addition to Detroit. I just wish it was planned for the cass corridor. So I could walk by it each time I cruise the neighborhood.


http://www.demariadesign.com/i ndex.php?option=com_content&ta sk=view&id=22

http://www.architectureandhygi ene.com/main.html
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Sumotect
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Username: Sumotect

Post Number: 286
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 5:26 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I like the work of Lot-ek

http://www.lot-ek.com/

They make those boxes look pretty cool.
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Rsa
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Username: Rsa

Post Number: 1479
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 6:05 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

pretty mod, but very cool: http://archinect.com:80/featur es/article.php?id=74943_0_23_0 _C

the project here was just on channel 7's news at 5.
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Gistok
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Username: Gistok

Post Number: 6811
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 6:20 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Some of these container cities are reminiscent of the "Habitat" housing of the 1967 Expo '67 Worlds Fair in Montreal.
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Retroit
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Username: Retroit

Post Number: 82
Registered: 04-2008
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 6:31 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

One man's trash is another man's ..... home!

The ingenuity of man is truly amazing! Now if only we could figure out how to turn abandoned HOUSES into livable homes!
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Dds
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Username: Dds

Post Number: 622
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 7:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

If I'm not mistaken, there is a house of this kind on the Leelanau Peninsula overlooking Lake Leelanau. It always looked very cool. Similar to the pic Johnlodge posted earlier in this thread.
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Treelock
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Username: Treelock

Post Number: 322
Registered: 03-2005
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - 8:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Supersweet.
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Rsa
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Username: Rsa

Post Number: 1480
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 10:38 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

national press:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0 ,2933,355295,00.html
http://www.treehugger.com/file s/2008/05/container-condo-detr oit.php
http://www.wkrg.com/news/artic le/shipping_container_condos/1 3846/

another cool example from salt lake city:
http://www.citycenterlofts.net /index.html
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Jt1
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Username: Jt1

Post Number: 11727
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 10:46 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Can we buy these for some of our CC members, then lock the door and put the containers on a ship to a faraway land?
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Elsuperbob
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Username: Elsuperbob

Post Number: 123
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 1:20 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Here's another take on it by Andrew Maynard. Living in a pile of shipping containers that is constantly reconfigured.

http://www.andrewmaynard.com.a u/corb.htm
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Spacemonkey
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Username: Spacemonkey

Post Number: 576
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 2:02 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I don't want to live in a shipping container.
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Blueidone
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Username: Blueidone

Post Number: 227
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 2:04 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

^^^ Kind of reminds me of the movie "I Robot" in the scene where the main character finds all the old robots...

But I still think the idea is a great one for using up the piles of these things and providing new housing. I'm hoping that after the designs get finalized and some projects are built, the cost will drop a little.
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Mayor_sekou
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Username: Mayor_sekou

Post Number: 2361
Registered: 09-2006
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 2:15 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Its better than whats in the area now which is exactly nothing and Woodbridge so yeah go right ahead and build away.
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Spacemonkey
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Username: Spacemonkey

Post Number: 579
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 4:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Reminds me of a scene in "Dexter".
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Mackcreative
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Username: Mackcreative

Post Number: 230
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 4:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I would love to live in one of those units, too bad I'm stuck in my absolutely lovely home in the area of "exactly nothing and Woodbridge."
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Monahan568
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Username: Monahan568

Post Number: 311
Registered: 04-2004
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 7:05 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

so let me get this straight we can't sell any more lofts/ apts but we are going to convert shipping boxes into condos all of the people on this site that think this is a good idea are the same red stripe drinking / american spirt smoking people who think that the cass corridor is a great cultural area. cue the whores and make mine a blonde!

(Message edited by monahan568 on May 14, 2008)
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Mackcreative
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Username: Mackcreative

Post Number: 231
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 9:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Please get this straight: good green design replacing a burnt down building, if getting behind that makes one some sort of caricature to you that's fine, though you're totally off base.
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Bulletmagnet
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Username: Bulletmagnet

Post Number: 1209
Registered: 01-2007
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 10:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The best part about them (the containers), is that they are bullet proof, unlike their poor mans equivalent: the cardboard box. Make mine a double wide!
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Jimaz
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Username: Jimaz

Post Number: 5358
Registered: 12-2005
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 10:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

They're nice but too strong.

Oscar the grouch
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Django
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Username: Django

Post Number: 368
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Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 10:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I knew a couple of dudes who moved out of S.F. and bought some beautiful land in No. Cal. They had a couple of thoes containers delivered up there to their mountain top to live in while they built their dream house. Total old school gay hippies. They were awsome. By now there house should be done. Thoes containers worked well for them long before anyone else thought of using them for that kind of thing
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Rustic
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Username: Rustic

Post Number: 3243
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 11:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

live in a shipping container ... and THIS could be your vacation home ....


I-pod?
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Mackinaw
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Username: Mackinaw

Post Number: 4779
Registered: 02-2005
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 11:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I think it's pretty cool, just strange to see such a space-saving, fairly dense design in a Detroit neighborhood.
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Terridarlin
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Username: Terridarlin

Post Number: 61
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 6:21 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Rustic, very funny POD vacation home.

I think it's an interesting idea, but I see it more in a community like Seattle. I took Lowell’s latest tour, and with so much magnificent architecture slated to be torn down; I have to wonder why live in a shipping container?
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Rustic
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Username: Rustic

Post Number: 3244
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Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 11:24 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"why live in a shipping container?"

sheet metal blocks gummint mind kkkontrol rays.
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Spacemonkey
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Username: Spacemonkey

Post Number: 587
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 11:28 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Why not build cheap new Detroit public schools out of these?
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Rustic
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Username: Rustic

Post Number: 3245
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Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 2:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Why not build cheap new Detroit public schools out of these?"

sheet metal blocks gummint mind kkkontrol rays.
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Pgn421
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Username: Pgn421

Post Number: 563
Registered: 02-2005
Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 6:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

i saw an ocean container at Detroit Harbor Terminal years ago.the doors were blown off. it had navy beans that ,was in the hot sun,a gas formed inside.it looked like a bomb hit it

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