"The team at Jeriko House set out to create modular housing with unsurpassable versatility, function, and design. The result? A house that is forward-thinking in its aesthetic appeal, logical in every element of composition, and is a genuine pleasure to own, maintain, and live in." Shawn & Angelina Burst
After Katrina
In late 2005, Shawn and Angelina Burst — newly married, with their dream New Orleans home just completed — watched Hurricane Katrina take everything down. Rebuilding wasn't a question of whether, but of how, this time, to do it right.
Shawn travelled to Germany to investigate prefabricated construction practices that didn't exist in the U.S. residential market. He met with a German engineer who had patented an innovative interlocking aluminum framing system originally developed for industrial automation — the kind of "T-slot" extrusion grid used to assemble factory equipment. The system was virtually indestructible: hurricane-rated, earthquake-rated, weatherproof, rustproof, pest-proof, non-flammable. And because it was modular and bolt-together, it could go up in weeks instead of months.
Burst licensed the system for residential application, recruited an international design and engineering team, and named the new company after Jericho — the city in scripture so resilient it became a metaphor for what couldn't be torn down. (The spelling change to Jeriko was deliberate: a new thing, not the old one.)
PreFab 2.0™
What Burst announced on January 31, 2007 was branded PreFab 2.0™: a new approach that made luxury, durability, and design all attainable through modular construction. Houses started at $175 per square foot — competitive with custom stick-built — but with a fraction of the construction time, a known schedule, and finishes (Asian teak, coconut-skin walls, Indian rosewood door handles, Bandung cream marble) that custom builders couldn't touch at the same price.
By the time of the launch press release, Jeriko had grown to over 30 architects, engineers, and designers on staff, with offices in Metairie, LA; Palm Beach, FL; and Beverly Hills, CA. The company set a goal of 100 houses sold in 2007, with the first home to be completed by May 1, 2007 in New Orleans.
The Architect Story
The first architect to take on the Jeriko aluminum kit-of-parts was Edward Keegan, AIA — a Chicago-based architect and contributing editor at Architect Magazine and the Chicago Tribune. Keegan struggled with the post-and-beam extrusion grid: no matter how he configured it, the result was "an assemblage of pieces" rather than a coherent dwelling.
That insight led Jeriko to bring in Santa Monica architect Patrick Tighe, FAIA, whose nodal/utility-pod reframe — four prefabricated cylindrical "utility nodes" attached to the rectilinear extrusion frame — became the Nodul(ar) House. The Nodul(ar) won a Progressive Architecture (P/A) Award from Architect Magazine, made the January 2008 cover, and was featured in the August 2008 issue of a+u (Japan's flagship architecture monthly).
Keegan, having stepped back from the architectural role, ended up writing about the company in BusinessWeek's "New Orleans: A Startup Laboratory" feature (Aug 27, 2007) — a participant's account, not arms-length press.
Community & Commitment
From day one, Jeriko House was structured as more than a builder. Burst publicly committed:
- A portion of Jeriko's first $7 million in profits to fund a Community Outreach Center on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans;
- For every 10th Jeriko House sold, those ten homeowners would form a committee that voted to gift a Jeriko House to a family in need somewhere in the United States.
Recognition
Press coverage spanned 2007–2011 across BusinessWeek, Inhabitat (twice), Jetson Green, Busyboo, Prefabcosm, TreeHugger, Residential Design Magazine, Architect Magazine (cover, P/A Award), and a+u (Japan).
Reach the Founders
Jeriko House, LLC
2031 Metairie Road
Metairie, Louisiana 70005
(888) 570-5452
info@jerikohouse.com