It's not easy to be first. The team that built the seven-story Stack in Upper Manhattan, New York City's first steel-framed modular mid-rise building, knows that from experience. The developer of the 28-unit residential building—at 90.5 ft tall, the tallest completed modular building in the U.S.—bought the land in 2007, yet the first tenants moved in just this past May.
"There were a lot of pitfalls," says Peter Gluck, who wears several hats on the Stack. Gluck+ is the architect and design-builder, and Gluck is a minority partner in the development.