Inside a 32,000 square foot modular home factory filled with the sounds of construction, high school student June Baker and her teacher Darrin Rassmusen huddled over blueprints trying to figure out what went wrong with a drywall installation. Turns out it was confusion over two panels both labelled A.
“We have one wall A that’s right and then one that’s not built because I had to take it apart,” Baker said. “But I’ve learned from my mistake and they realized from that mistake that they need to start labelling each wall with numbers.”
The factory sits on land owned by the Boulder Valley School District. The city of Boulder built it for $13 million, with support from federal, state and private foundation grants and loans. Students get course credit and hands-on experience building houses. The local Habitat for Humanity chapter manages the program. All the organizations involved say this three-way partnership is the first of its kind in the nation…