When fire ravaged through the Santa Barbara hills in 2008, 111 homes were lost. We were privileged to build a home for a woman who lost her home in the Tea Fire. The home was designed by Blackbird Architects, a local Santa Barbara architecture firm.

We built the home in 12 weeks. The home had to meet the Wild Urban Interface requirements – all exposed lumber was fire-treated and all finish material complied with the WUI standards. The home uses Hardie Siding and corrugated metal.

You can browse through construction photos and photos from the set on our facebook site.

Our team successfully built a show home for West Coast Green in 10 days. The “Inspired In-Law cottage” designed by Larson-Shores Architects. is a 540 SF cottage that incorporates green and  We installed the home for West Coast Green and hundreds of professionals, green advocates, homeowners, etc. walked through the home.

The most significant take away from the show – “green” is really “greyish-green”. Many of the individuals I spoke with – outside of professionals – are seeking professionals to tell them what is “green”. Therein lies the problem. It’s such a wide spectrum and to one professional simple wood stud walls with batt insulation is not “green” while to others it’s green if it’s combined with building methods that make a tight envelope, an efficient heating or cooling system, or eco-friendly materials. Over the next few months I plan to document some of the lessons we’ve learned working with our clients and the challenges our clients face when weighing cost vs. performance vs. aesthetics.

On September 2nd, we had our official opening of Eco Offsite’s production facility in San Jose, CA. Official photos from the event, courtesy of the San Jose Redevelopment Agency are here. We thank everyone who attended, including Councilwoman Madison Nyugen, the Redevelopment Agency, partners, clients, and employees. One of our employees cooked up a great BBQ.

Guests, partners, and employees at our Open House

Offsite and onsite work began on a 6,000 SF home. The site work is extensive and will take 12-14 weeks. Over the next few weeks we’ll share the progress onsite and in our factory. The home is a modern craftsman.

Offsite. What is offsite? When we started this company we were aware of how architects, homeowners, and developers perceive modular construction.
Many think boxes or mobile homes. Some think of Dwell. We see modular as a way of building –not a style. The homes we build are what you imagine.Every site, every dream, and budget is unique. Our
mission is to build homes, using the methods that are feasible and suitable to build your dream home. We are building some homes entirely in our facility in San Jose, some homes as hybrids or part offsite and onsite,and some homes using panels or assemblies built in our facility. We’ll update this blog in the upcoming months with photos and updates on the homes we are building using a variety of offsite methods.