From Campus to Community:
luminOCity’s Journey (…so far)
It has been a while since the inaugural Orange County Sustainability Decathlon concluded. To say it was a journey for teamMADE is quite an understatement. Even our luminOCity house put on mileage while being moved not only once, but three times.
The last months have been a blur with the major milestones standing out. Getting the house built and ready on opening day, welcoming visitors, scoring 10 awards, placing second place overall, seeing our students shine on stage, or just spending time together in our beautiful home. But it was extra special to see our house come apart into four modules, each weighing thousands of pounds, be lifted up in the air, and drive down the street on big flatbed trucks.
A huge amount of planning, organizing, and preparing went into our very successful participation in the decathlon. But moving a full sized house takes a different level of planning and preparation and most of all, a group of experienced professionals who make a complicated engineering feat look easy. Bragg Craning and Heavy Transport was part of luminOCity’s multiple moves.
SEPTEMBER 23, 2023
Moving from the teamMADE construction site at OCC to the OC Fairgrounds.
OCTOBER 20, 2023
Moving from the competition lot at the OC Fairgrounds to another lot.
NOVEMBER 7, 2023
Moving from the OC Fairgrounds to a temporary lot in Placentia, CA.
SEPTEMBER 23, 2023
Orange Coast College to the OC Fairgrounds
We designed our luminOCity house to split up into four modules for transport, two 8 ft. x 16 ft and two 8 ft. x 32 ft. The large modules weighed about 12,000 lbs. each, the two smaller ones about half. Arrived at the OC Fairgrounds we would have 10 days to complete our house and the outside space on the lot as much as possible to compete in the Orange County Sustainability Decathlon and to show it off to the public.
OCTOBER 20, 2023
OC Fairgrounds-Competition Lot to Lot G
The OCSD ended on October 15th and all houses needed to be off the competition lot by October 20th, leaving us four(!) days for disassembly and preparation for transport. Knowing that the end location in Placentia wouldn’t be ready in time to receive the ADU by this time and due to short notice changes of plans, the UCI team needed to find a short term “storage” solution within a day. Countless phone calls, conversations, and negotiations later we were able to move the house to a different lot at the OC Fairgrounds buying us time to figure out next steps.
NOVEMBER 6-7, 2023
OC Fairgrounds-Placentia, CA
Only due to the generous support from UCI were we able to move the house again, on its longest trek thus far, finally getting it closer to its end location in Placentia, California. The largest module now reaching a weight of approximately 16,000 lbs. and a height of about 14 ft., the house would travel the 18 miles in the middle of the night on side streets and yes, also on the highway. A different level of prep was necessary to secure everything in- and outside the modules for this trip now dealing with finished eaves, installed kitchen casework, and more of the interior completed.
November 6, 2023
Loading the four modules onto flatbed trucks and prepping for oversize load transport, prepping inside and outside of the modules to secure everything for a trip on the highway
November 7, 2023 – 2:00 AM
Leaving the OC Fairgrounds to transport modules within a 100 yards of its end location in Placentia, California. HIS-OC secured a short term storage lot where the luminOCity house now eagerly awaits the completion of the site prep and city permits.
You would think that one gets used to moving a house but every time turns out to be an exciting and at the same time nerve-wrecking experience followed by total relief when all four modules reach the safety of even ground again. It is amazing to see the heavy transport and craning pros figuring out how to lift and balance each piece and transport them with a calm and confident attitude, drawing to a close the engineering feat this project set out to be.
Check out the OC Sustainability Decathlon
Contact
Jennifer Wilkens, UCI
jwilkens@uci.edu
Mark Walter, UCI
m.walter@uci.edu