Randy Lange, co-owner of Lange Brothers Woodwork Co., has spent half a lifetime helping turn his family’s 91-year-old carpentry business into an award-winning custom millwork company.
But these days, he’s been spending a lot of time with his son, R.J. Lange, working on a growing side project that he and local affordable housing advocates hope is part of the answer to solving the Milwaukee affordable housing crisis.
The business is named Lange Urban Sustainable Homes LLC – or LUSH for short. Randy, R.J. and a handful of employees have spent the past two years designing a prefabricated home model capable of being constructed in a matter of weeks, with nothing more than a mallet, building instructions and a few helping hands.
Made from plywood or OSB “micro timbers,” the houses can be constructed to be as small or as large as one wants, and fit together using simple mortise and tenon joints.
“I wouldn’t call it modular. I would call it panelized. It’s like the Amish barns … where everything is put together with wedges and dowels,” explains Lange, except the timbers or beams are man-made, not logged.
There’s no need for glue. No need for saws. No need for nails. All the parts of a LUSH home are made on a CNC machine – from joints that you can hold in one hand, to the massive panels that make up the walls.
“Our goal is that (all parts of the homes) fit on a normal semi-trailer,” Lange said.
Prefabricated homes are nothing new, but Lange says LUSH homes are designed to be low-cost, low-waste homes, that are faster and more cost effective to construct. The whole process results in only about 5% waste – mostly wood shavings that can be given to farms for animal bedding. Since initial assembly can happen indoors, the process doesn’t have to stop during the winter, Lange said. Eventually he hopes to be able to build the homes in 10 to 12 weeks as opposed to the 10 to 12 months it takes to build a more typical home.
Although the homes can be built at a variety of price levels, the company is currently focusing on constructing affordable, entry-level homes. Under its LUSH Plus program, in which the company would install the structure as well as the cabinetry and millwork, the homes would cost between $140 to $200 per square foot to construct.
The company already has 11 of the homes under some commission level, including one on a vacant lot on North 39th Street in Milwaukee’s Thurston Woods neighborhood, near the Lange Brothers Woodwork Co. headquarters at 3920 W. Douglas Ave. The home will serve as a model initially but then be sold as an affordable family home.
As part of that goal, LUSH is currently vying for a city contract to construct at least three affordable, net-zero energy homes – homes that use no fossil fuels – on vacant, city-owned lots.
And it’s already teaming up with the Community Development Alliance and Via CDC to construct three model homes that can be sold to lower-income, entry-level homebuyers.
A housing, economic development and neighborhood improvement nonprofit serving the Burnham Park, Layton Park and Silver City neighborhoods, Via CDC (formerly Layton Boulevard West Neighbors) was connected with LUSH at a crucial moment, says Joanna Bautsch, the organization’s executive director.
The nonprofit had been focused on purchasing and renovated, city-owned foreclosures, and then selling them to low-income families, but recently found itself with few homes to buy.
“We were running into barriers because there aren’t that many foreclosed properties available,” Bautsch said. “What there is a lot of are vacant lots.”
It was right around that time that Teig Whaley-Smith, chief alliance executive at CDA, introduced Bautsch to LUSH.
“It was presented at the perfect time,” said Bautsch.
Plans call for LUSH to construct three 1,100-square-foot, three-bedroom homes for the nonprofit. Qualified buyers could purchase one of the homes for $110,000, she said, and receive downpayment assistance as well.
For Whaley-Smith, LUSH’s building process could go a long way to help the CDA fulfill its goal of building thousands of affordable single-family homes in Milwaukee.
There are 3,000 vacant lots in Milwaukee, and CDA wants to turn every one into an entry-level home, he said.
“We have taken dozens of people through LUSH’s facility,” Whaley-Smith said. “We’re thrilled to find them.”
