Industry Development
A HISTORY OF INNOVATION IN COLORADO SPRINGS by Bruce Thompson
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Housing continues to str uggle to meet the current demand. There is a national shortage of four million units, according to recent information from the Joint Housing Studies Program at Harvard University. In many parts of the U.S., soaring prices have pulled home ownership beyond the reach of many Americans. While there is no single solution, offsite construction is growing as a percent of total production due to its predictability in cost, timing, and quality, as well as efficiencies in labor and material. For many of us involved in housing, we dream about what the world would look like today, for instance, if Sears had kept producing its catalog homes. During the course of 30 years, more than 100,000 standard floor plans were built. I truly believe that if this pace of innovation and distribution had persisted, there would be an entirely different housing supply chain and far less of a shortage. To better understand how far advanced Sears was at the time, it is helpful to look at what is thought to be among the first Sears homes in the country, brought by rail to Colorado Springs well over 100 years ago. 38 | JULY / AUGUST 2021 EDITION
John Clear, the owner of the Sears home, wrote this testimonial for a local newspaper, The Gazette, following construction: “I am just as well pleased today, three years after building, as I was at the time everything was new. I will state that I am more than pleased with my home built by my plans and your material. The quality of the material furnished by you far surpasses any that is being furnished for other houses being built right here, and your prices are fully 50 per cent lower. I received my entire order in a little more than two weeks from the time you shipped it from your factory and not a single article was damaged and was packed in fine shape.”
‘Bott to the Future’ In many respects, it is a version of “Back to the Future” this summer in Colorado Springs. K2 Home Builders is introducing standard floorplans built offsite by URBANEER into urban infill sites in the Bott Street neighborhood, platted in the 1880s by real estate developer Anthony Bott. Arriving from France as part of the 1859 gold rush,
