VESTA Wins 1st Place Awards and Honorable Mention At 2023 “World of Modular”

VESTA Modular (the nation’s fastest growing provider of temporary and permanent modular buildings), was honored with 2 first place awards plus an Honorable Mention at the Modular Building Institute’s 2023 World of Modular Conference and Trade show, an open forum for anyone involved in the modular construction industry.

During the awards program, VESTA Modular was awarded the following honors:

1ST Place -Relocatable Education: Terrebonne Parish School District

Terrebonne Parish School District had two school campuses destroyed during Hurricane Ida. With the destruction of their current campus, they needed to share facilities with neighboring campuses until a temporary solution was provided. VESTA built two temporary campuses for the Terrebonne Parish School District; one campus for South Terrebonne High School and one for Ellender Memorial High School. 172 floors were installed across both locations which included the required classroom space, 4 working kitchens for their Home Economics program, 2 Science labs, a Library, cafeteria, changing rooms for physical education, separate band/music buildings as well as gang and private restrooms at each location. Both campuses were carefully designed with consideration for the student’s experience. Each building was connected with a site built covered walkway to ensure the campuses felt cohesive as well as protect staff and students from the elements.

In order to adhere to the aggressive construction schedule, VESTA utilized two separate manufacturers and transport companies to construct and deliver the required 172 floors in a timely manner. In order to minimize site disruption and deliver the extensive number of floors, VESTA’s solution was to build new units. Each building was delivered with all specialty components included. The science labs came equipped with gas systems, vent hoods, and makeup air units. The Home Economics rooms included full fire rated mini kitchens that are comprised of a stove top and mini fridge. We were able to use pre-designed VESTA stock units that were outfitted to work for each room type.  In order to minimize our carbon footprint, all buildings were finished with VESTA colors and standard finishes to be removed and reused on other projects after the completion of the current lease.

1ST Place- Marketing Piece: VESTA WEBSITE

The new site has been re-designed and updated with a sharp look and feel including a revamped navigation menu, categorized by industry and product type, to make it more intuitive. The new website offers a clean, modern design, easy navigation and helpful tools and resources. With a heavy focus on our core industry of leasing and selling modular offices and jobsite trailers, we have also included our products for education, healthcare, containers, and specialty units, to deliver consistent, relevant information and resources. With user experience and access in mind, the website has been designed using the latest technology to expand our customers’ knowledge and understanding of how modular construction is the building block of the future. By relying on extensive competitor, keyword, and market research, we were able to ensure that the website would help achieve core business initiatives and serve customers, while maintaining our strong digital presence and search engine optimization.

With our aggressive content creation based on keyword research, our customers are coming to the website directly with an increase of 44% average time spent.  Direct traffic has increased 137% year over year and total site traffic has increased 58%. By adding prominent Calls to Action and quality images on our more relevant home page and location pages, the conversion rate has increased 24% on those pages. Goal completions for initiating contact through our various channels have increased 29.35% resulting in an increased total conversion rate of 34%. Organic leads have had a significant increase since optimizing our SEO and the deployment of the site.  With the customer experience and easy to navigate content, our site has seen an increase in our monthly form submissions of 29.35% resulting in more quality, nurtured leads. With the addition of our available inventory page and easier to navigate portfolio page, we have seen an increase in engagement of our downloadable content as well.

Honorable Mention Permanent DORM: The HOLDERNESS SCHOOL

The Holderness School needed an additional student dormitory due to campus density issues. VESTA Modular’s solution was to provide an 8-module, 12-student dorm including six double occupancy sleeping quarters, faculty residence, student lounge, gang restrooms with showers and a full gender-neutral bathroom.  The faculty apartment includes two private bedrooms, bathroom, living room and full kitchen, completely separated from the student living area. The interior has LVT flooring, VCG wall coverings, and a 2x2 suspended ceiling while the exterior is equipped with Hardi plank siding and a site-built 8:12 pitched gable roof. The building is tucked into the woods and matches the neighboring buildings on campus, and the interior signage incorporates the school’s logo and colors.  

Designing the foundation was a challenge due to the vast amount of ledge underground. We decided to go with a perimeter stem wall foundation system which required a jackhammer to remove all the ledge. The foundation had to extend 52” to the frost line in New Hampshire, so the “crawl space” essentially turned into a basement. The 8:12 pitched gable roof was designed to help alleviate the heavy snow during the New England winters. PTAC units were installed in each dorm room to give the students the flexibility of controlling their own thermostat. 

Timing was a big concern for the customer. We took that into consideration during the design process to ensure there was nothing that would extend the production schedule due to long lead times of special equipment or materials. Additionally, working with the campus-preferred site contractor allowed us to move forward quickly with revisions and change orders as the school was confident in their past experiences and motivated to continue progress. By utilizing the ADA restroom as a gender-neutral restroom, we were able to reduce the number of fixtures needed, therefore maximizing the recreational space. We also utilized cost cutting methods and used leftover lumber to construct a catwalk in the attic space for future maintenance.  

About The Modular Building Institute (MBI)

The Modular Building Institute (MBI) is the international non-profit trade association serving the commercial modular construction industry for over thirty-five years. As the Voice of Commercial Modular Construction™ MBI promotes the advantages of modular construction while advocating for the removal of barriers that limit growth opportunities.  Through its long-standing relationships with member companies, policy makers, developers, architects and contractors, MBI has become the trusted source of information for the commercial modular construction industry. For more information on MBI, please visit Modular Building Institute.

We are so honored to have our work acknowledged by MBI, and look forward to joining next year’s World of Modular Conference and Tradeshow!