In this episode of the Construction Disruption podcast, co-hosts Todd Miller and Ryan Bell from Isaiah Industries sit down with Peter DeMaria, Chief Design Officer and co-founder of Mid-Rise Modular, LLC. Peter brings a wealth of experience in architectural design and academia, and he discusses his mission to address the global housing crisis through innovative and sustainable modular solutions. From his unique methods involving light gauge steel to the impact of policy and technology on construction, Peter's insights are invaluable for anyone interested in the future of housing and architecture. Don't miss out as he shares formative moments in his career and his vision for addressing homelessness both locally and globally.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Co-Host Introduction
00:13 A Bat in the House: Todd's Story
01:42 Challenge Words Game
02:19 Introducing Peter DeMaria
03:37 Peter's Career Beginnings and Inspirations
08:44 Mid-Rise Modular and Homelessness Solutions
13:50 Challenges in Rebuilding After Fires
18:41 The Benefits of Steel in Construction
25:48 From Design to Manufacturing
30:24 Addressing the Homeless Crisis
34:12 A Heartfelt Encounter
34:37 Reflections on Architectural Impact
35:54 Insights from the International Builder Show
36:48 Innovative Shower Solutions
39:39 The Concept of Team Prefab
41:24 Advice for Aspiring Professionals
41:59 Embracing Technology and Change
46:55 Rapid Fire Questions
57:48 Final Thoughts and Contact Information
Connect with Peter Online
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-demaria-4b021b12/
De Maria Design:https://demariadesign.com/
Mid-Rise Modular: https://midrisemodular.com/
TEAMprefab: https://www.teamprefab.com/
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Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn
This episode was produced by Isaiah Industries, Inc.
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I'm Todd Miller, of Isaiah Industries, manufacturers
Todd Miller:of specialty, residential, metal roofing, and other building materials.
Todd Miller:Today, my co host is Ryan Bell.
Todd Miller:Ryan, how you doing today?
Ryan Bell:Hey, good morning, Todd.
Ryan Bell:I'm doing great.
Ryan Bell:How are you?
Todd Miller:I'm doing well also.
Todd Miller:So I kind of had a interesting story yesterday with my mom.
Todd Miller:Um, this was interesting.
Todd Miller:So she had called me the night before about 10 o'clock at night.
Todd Miller:She lives two doors down.
Todd Miller:So that helps.
Todd Miller:Um, but she called me and said that, um, you won't believe what's in my house.
Todd Miller:I have this huge bat flying around inside my house.
Todd Miller:And, um, bats kind of freak people out as, as we know, so I, I kinda, she, she
Todd Miller:really didn't get too upset about it.
Todd Miller:She was pretty calm about the whole thing.
Todd Miller:So I said, okay, here's what you're gonna do.
Todd Miller:Close all the doors, go to bed, leave 1 door open and leave
Todd Miller:a light on in that room and.
Todd Miller:We'll see what's up in the morning.
Todd Miller:Um, so in the morning I get to her house and I knock on her door
Todd Miller:and, um, I, I immediately shine a flashlight and in her face and say,
Todd Miller:Hey, I'm here looking for an old bat.
Todd Miller:Um, she actually took that with a great deal of humor.
Todd Miller:So that was good.
Todd Miller:But you know, my mom was a farm girl, so nothing bothers
Todd Miller:farm people I've discovered.
Todd Miller:So, um.
Todd Miller:Anyway, we found the bat, um, uh, we did hire a bat removal specialist,
Todd Miller:which by the way, the going rate for bat removal is 300 bucks now.
Todd Miller:Um, yes, but we had, we had a bat removal specialist come and, and
Todd Miller:he was like, I can't believe she stayed in the house last night.
Todd Miller:Nobody stays in their house when they think there's a bat in there.
Ryan Bell:Wow.
Todd Miller:So I was proud of her.
Todd Miller:She's a farm girl through and through anyway.
Todd Miller:So just a reminder to our audience.
Todd Miller:Uh, once again, we are playing our challenge words here on this
Todd Miller:episode of construction disruption.
Todd Miller:Uh, that's is, uh, whereby each of us on the show has been given
Todd Miller:some sort of secret word or phrase, seamlessly as possible.
Todd Miller:And, uh, you, the audience can kind of guess what maybe our challenge word was.
Todd Miller:If you hear us say something kind of.
Todd Miller:Peculiar, um, peculiar is not a challenge word, by the way.
Todd Miller:Uh, and then at the end of the show, we will announce whether we were successful
Todd Miller:or not at getting in our challenge words.
Todd Miller:So Ryan, we ready to go.
Ryan Bell:Yes.
Ryan Bell:Let's get started.
Todd Miller:Great.
Todd Miller:Well, today's guest is Peter DeMaria.
Todd Miller:Um, having lived in California and Texas, Peter has a long history in
Todd Miller:architectural design and academia.
Todd Miller:The recipient of six AIA honor awards for excellence in design.
Todd Miller:Peter has also received the Bank of Manhattan's Innovative Entrepreneur
Todd Miller:of the Year Award in recognition of his progressive and committed business
Todd Miller:development focused on alternative building methodologies and systems.
Todd Miller:One of the most recent developments in Peter's career has been as Chief Design
Todd Miller:Officer and co founder of Mid-Rise Modular, LLC, um, with Mid-Rise Modular.
Todd Miller:LLC.
Todd Miller:He's on a mission to provide housing for the masses.
Todd Miller:Mid-Rise is a prefab 2D panel and 3D volumetric modular company focused on
Todd Miller:providing high quality architectural solutions in an expedited manner
Todd Miller:at an affordable affordable price.
Todd Miller:Peter, uh, really is on a quest to crack the code on the world's homeless
Todd Miller:and housing shortage challenge.
Todd Miller:So Peter, uh, welcome to Construction Disruption today.
Todd Miller:It's a pleasure to have you as our guest.
Peter DeMaria:Thank you, Todd.
Peter DeMaria:Good morning to you and Ryan.
Peter DeMaria:Happy to be here.
Todd Miller:Fantastic.
Todd Miller:Well, thank you again.
Todd Miller:So, um, a lot of times in this sort of interview format, I'll kind of start
Todd Miller:by asking the guest to tell us a little bit about how their career started.
Todd Miller:Um, the thing that impresses me about you, and it's pretty easy as I look at your
Todd Miller:CV and all you've done is you are really.
Todd Miller:Kind of live with this sense of urgency to solve problems
Todd Miller:and to create a better future.
Todd Miller:Um, so I really want to focus on that rather than focus on your past, but, um,
Todd Miller:I am kind of curious, is there anything in the early part of your career that,
Todd Miller:um, really created these burning, um, drive and passions that you have today,
Todd Miller:uh, to address the homeless issue?
Peter DeMaria:I think if there was one pivotal moment, it was not an
Peter DeMaria:aha moment, but it was one of those moments where you're in it and you
Peter DeMaria:don't realize it is changing the trajectory of your entire life.
Peter DeMaria:And I was in undergraduate school, had a fine art, pursuing a fine art degree,
Peter DeMaria:and just happened to take a class over in the engineering department.
Peter DeMaria:Which was taboo at that time.
Peter DeMaria:The artists were not taking classes in the engineering department.
Peter DeMaria:The engineers were foreign animals, you know.
Peter DeMaria:And I happened to take a class with a gentleman who was from Missouri
Peter DeMaria:originally, and was kind of a disciple of Buckminster Fuller.
Peter DeMaria:And Buckminster Fuller was quite a renaissance man through
Peter DeMaria:the entire century almost.
Peter DeMaria:And, um, we had a wild idea, or one of our class, he said, let's go
Peter DeMaria:on up to Woods Hole, Massachusetts and meet Buckminster Fuller.
Peter DeMaria:And I was like, wow, yeah, exactly.
Peter DeMaria:So you go up there and this gentleman walks in, and you're all sitting
Peter DeMaria:around like young college students, and he walks into the room and he must
Peter DeMaria:have been 75, something in his 70s.
Peter DeMaria:And he had a cane, and he walks in, but it did not matter about his age.
Peter DeMaria:Some folks just transcend time.
Peter DeMaria:He walked in, and I swear all the lights went on, right?
Peter DeMaria:He just, just this glowing fellow that carried this energy about him.
Peter DeMaria:And, and like, wow, this guy really is resonating.
Peter DeMaria:He didn't even talk much in the beginning, but you could feel it.
Peter DeMaria:He had a passion for what he was doing.
Peter DeMaria:He was so connected to everything we were there studying.
Peter DeMaria:And, and, and I'm from an Italian American neighborhood in New Jersey.
Peter DeMaria:And.
Peter DeMaria:To me, Bucky Fuller is like so outside of the norm, but it was really inspiring.
Peter DeMaria:All of a sudden you start to think about how you can live as opposed
Peter DeMaria:to how you have lived, right?
Peter DeMaria:That had nothing to do with modular, right?
Peter DeMaria:But it was a pivotal moment where I could chase back and say, you know what,
Peter DeMaria:That's when, that's when they took a hard right turn, and things, things started
Peter DeMaria:off on a whole new, uh, whole new path.
Peter DeMaria:So that, that's probably the earliest one.
Peter DeMaria:I can go back further and further and tell you stories about my neighborhood,
Peter DeMaria:and, and every one of those is a great story, and, uh, and it's helped shape
Peter DeMaria:me in, in some way, shape, or form.
Peter DeMaria:But I think meeting Buckminster Fuller and seeing a more worldly view of
Peter DeMaria:it, uh, as opposed to a more narrow focus, the macro as opposed to the
Peter DeMaria:micro, was a very pivotal moment.
Todd Miller:That is fantastic.
Todd Miller:And I love that, you know, and I'm sure that, uh, You know, he probably
Todd Miller:didn't realize he was having the impact on people that he was just
Todd Miller:with that simple meeting with a bunch of undergraduate students, but, uh,
Todd Miller:fantastic how you've carried that.
Todd Miller:So, so I have to ask, where did you go to undergrad school at?
Todd Miller:I assume you were not an Ohio State, Ohio State Buckeye or anything.
Peter DeMaria:I went to a small university in New Jersey
Peter DeMaria:called Keene University.
Peter DeMaria:And from Kean University, uh, I met the professor there, Joe, um, Joe
Peter DeMaria:Clinton, who used to work with Bucky Fuller, that's how I got to meet him.
Peter DeMaria:And the minute I met him, I said, I'm going to graduate school, you know.
Peter DeMaria:I remember my dad saying, graduate school, what's that, right?
Peter DeMaria:We go to a working class, blue collar neighborhood, he
Peter DeMaria:said, what's graduate school?
Peter DeMaria:I said, you know, I go for a few more years, I want to be an architect.
Peter DeMaria:Because how many more years?
Peter DeMaria:You could be a doctor.
Peter DeMaria:That's all they knew.
Peter DeMaria:You go beyond undergraduate school, you're going to be a doctor and attorney.
Peter DeMaria:But yeah, really homegrown there in New Jersey and then went
Peter DeMaria:to the University of Texas.
Peter DeMaria:And that was another pivotal moment.
Peter DeMaria:That might have been one of the greatest things I did in my entire life because
Peter DeMaria:it really opened the world up to me.
Peter DeMaria:But Austin, I still have a love for Austin.
Peter DeMaria:And recently we had the opportunity to go back and teach there for a few
Peter DeMaria:years at the School of Architecture where I just got my master's degree.
Peter DeMaria:Um, and it's more inspiring to teach, believe it or not, than
Peter DeMaria:to actually be the student.
Peter DeMaria:It's a, it's a, it's quite an interesting dichotomy there.
Peter DeMaria:But, uh, Austin is a newfound home for me.
Todd Miller:very cool.
Todd Miller:And that's an interesting perspective, too, that it's more
Todd Miller:fun to teach than be the student.
Todd Miller:And even though I've never been a professor or academia, yeah, I find this
Todd Miller:part of my career where I can build into others a lot more rewarding back when
Todd Miller:I was trying to learn all that stuff.
Todd Miller:So, um, good stuff.
Todd Miller:So, I'm curious, what do you see as the biggest barriers to solving, um,
Todd Miller:the homeless crisis and how does your company you have founded, Mid-Rise
Todd Miller:Modular, um, how are you breaking through some of those challenges?
Peter DeMaria:So I'm going to answer those in reverse.
Peter DeMaria:I'll tell you about Mid-Rise first, and then I'll tell you what
Peter DeMaria:I think is the larger challenge.
Peter DeMaria:Uh, Mid-Rise works exclusively in light gauge steel and non combustible materials.
Peter DeMaria:We don't use plywood.
Peter DeMaria:We are using something called shear board for our shear panels.
Peter DeMaria:Uh, we'll use another product called Structacrete for our flooring.
Peter DeMaria:Uh, there's no plywood, there's no combustible materials in our projects.
Peter DeMaria:So they're what we call Type 1 buildings, sometimes Type 2 buildings.
Peter DeMaria:We do that because we've seen so often that the traditional and modular wood
Peter DeMaria:frame buildings are susceptible to mold, termites, fire, all those things that
Peter DeMaria:really don't speak about longevity.
Peter DeMaria:And when we do create a building, there's this incredible amount
Peter DeMaria:of work that goes into it.
Peter DeMaria:And it's not like, um, I think Frank Lloyd Wright said that he said
Peter DeMaria:that when doctors make a mistake.
Peter DeMaria:They get to bury their mistakes, right?
Peter DeMaria:But when architects make a mistake, you just plant vines, right?
Peter DeMaria:And you just cover it up so no one sees it, right?
Peter DeMaria:And, uh, I've never liked that.
Peter DeMaria:I mean, I'm just saying you have an impact, but we have a responsibility
Peter DeMaria:to create something that is going to improve, uh, improve our quality of life,
Peter DeMaria:have an impact on our quality of life.
Peter DeMaria:We, you know, I've always felt that our surroundings play a pivotal role
Peter DeMaria:in how, how we approach the day.
Peter DeMaria:And our modular company is a, uh, it's got all the technical bells and whistles.
Peter DeMaria:Innovative, kooky guy that loves to, you know, solve problems and
Peter DeMaria:that's at the core of everything.
Peter DeMaria:So we're on the cutting edge of what's taking place in our industry and to be
Peter DeMaria:wrapped up in all the technical but not think about, you know, the aesthetics
Peter DeMaria:and how it's going to have an impact on someone's life, um, is short sighted.
Peter DeMaria:So that's where we are.
Peter DeMaria:We are out there trying to make a positive difference.
Peter DeMaria:When I grew up in New Jersey, um, in Elizabeth and Newark, I was closer
Peter DeMaria:to New York City than Philadelphia.
Peter DeMaria:Um, there were projects there that were built in 60s, and they, they
Peter DeMaria:must have been 25 story buildings, made of brick and solid buildings.
Peter DeMaria:Well, I think 35 years later, they tore them down.
Peter DeMaria:It's just not good enough to create a shelter and put people in a box, right?
Peter DeMaria:Because it has impact on how they live and, um, it's part of a much
Peter DeMaria:larger fabric, so we can't avoid that.
Peter DeMaria:That part of me as an architect just never goes away.
Peter DeMaria:The second part of the question and what I see the challenges are, there
Peter DeMaria:are some brilliant people in this field.
Peter DeMaria:I, and I learned continuously through collaboration, through speaking to a
Peter DeMaria:gentleman like yourself, and, and we just get better and better and better,
Peter DeMaria:and we're part of this continuum.
Peter DeMaria:You know, this evolution of ideas in a pre fab and modular world that
Peter DeMaria:continues to get better, much like, uh, a smartphone was developed.
Peter DeMaria:My smartphone from 15 years ago didn't look anything like what I have now.
Peter DeMaria:I, I did the same thing with automobiles, and you look at aerospace, and all of
Peter DeMaria:those industries continue to progress.
Peter DeMaria:But for some reason in the world of architecture, we're still doing it the
Peter DeMaria:way we've done it thousands of years ago.
Peter DeMaria:Now, the modular industry has made an incredible amount of progress, and all
Peter DeMaria:these brilliant people that I speak about, they solve the challenges.
Peter DeMaria:There's some equipment that comes out of your part of the country, the role forming
Peter DeMaria:machines, that are just unbelievable.
Peter DeMaria:People really rise to the occasion when it comes to the technical end of it.
Peter DeMaria:I was at the conference of the Builder Show, we were speaking about this,
Peter DeMaria:and it's One of the fabricators, I'm a very successful company.
Peter DeMaria:I said, you know, I think we only have one challenge.
Peter DeMaria:And, and he said, yeah.
Peter DeMaria:And, and at the same time he said, people, right, there's policymakers, right?
Peter DeMaria:And all these rules.
Peter DeMaria:Now in California, I don't know that any other state eclipses California
Peter DeMaria:when it comes to, uh, regulations and things along those lines.
Peter DeMaria:Um, and I know they've set up in the best interest of the general public, but
Peter DeMaria:sometimes it just goes too far, right?
Peter DeMaria:And it becomes counterproductive, you know, and it kind of stifles the
Peter DeMaria:development and, uh, you know, progress.
Peter DeMaria:So I think with a friendlier government to development, okay, I think
Peter DeMaria:that you will blow the lid off the construction industry and you'll be
Peter DeMaria:able to see, um, modular and prefab work, you know, leverage to the max.
Peter DeMaria:So I think it's more about policy makers that really will open up the door.
Peter DeMaria:We'll always have the next creative genius come along to make it better, make it
Peter DeMaria:faster, better quality, more affordable.
Peter DeMaria:So it's not a technical challenge for me.
Peter DeMaria:It's it's a, it's a policymaker challenge.
Todd Miller:Well, I think that's really interesting, and I think
Todd Miller:it kind of leads into another thing I wanted to ask you about.
Todd Miller:So, uh, your factory is in Southern California, south of Los Angeles, and
Todd Miller:you spent a lot of your career there.
Todd Miller:Um, no doubt that the recent tragic fires, uh, they hit the Northern
Todd Miller:California or Northern LA area.
Todd Miller:Um, I'm sure that hits you pretty hard, but.
Todd Miller:Um, so when you look at the challenges to rebuilding, do you
Todd Miller:think a lot of those challenges will have to do with people and policy?
Todd Miller:And I know they talk about trying to open some of that up and free up some
Todd Miller:of that, but by the same token, they're still going to require adherence to
Todd Miller:current building code and things.
Todd Miller:So how do you see that playing out?
Todd Miller:Any thoughts on that?
Peter DeMaria:I'm the outside looking in because I'm not in the mayor's office.
Peter DeMaria:Um, I think it's I think it's 5 to 7 years of recovery time.
Peter DeMaria:And I don't see that because I'm upset with anyone.
Peter DeMaria:I mean, that's no good to point fingers at anyone.
Peter DeMaria:But I can tell you that it's not just the rebuilding of a structure.
Peter DeMaria:If we had to put up a new building and policy got out of the way, we could
Peter DeMaria:have it done in less than a month.
Peter DeMaria:That's it.
Peter DeMaria:I can have a house up in less than a month and you could be living in that home.
Peter DeMaria:They have much greater challenges there.
Peter DeMaria:I, uh, some clients who had all the homes around them burned down, but
Peter DeMaria:the home we desired did not burn down.
Peter DeMaria:So I said, wow, you're ready to go back in.
Peter DeMaria:He said, well, I had the heat bath filters in and all this stuff,
Peter DeMaria:and they're clearing out the house to mitigate all the smoke.
Peter DeMaria:Um, I said, so when can I come over?
Peter DeMaria:I'd love to see the house.
Peter DeMaria:He said, I can't move back in.
Peter DeMaria:He said, the water is contaminated.
Peter DeMaria:So there's no water there.
Peter DeMaria:In the neighborhoods that have power poles.
Peter DeMaria:Those powerful, you know, the transformers on those powerful exploded.
Peter DeMaria:There's no electricity.
Peter DeMaria:Some of the neighbors that did have underground electrical, right, they're
Peter DeMaria:back up and they're functioning.
Peter DeMaria:At least they have the electricity there.
Peter DeMaria:So you've got this kind of utility challenge when it comes to water and
Peter DeMaria:electricity, making a place safe.
Peter DeMaria:You also have, um, this nine, ten, maybe one foot deep layer of ash,
Peter DeMaria:and God knows what's in it, right?
Peter DeMaria:So already there's a plan, I'm not sure if FEMA is spearheading it, but they're
Peter DeMaria:removing six inches of soil plus whatever is on top of it from every property.
Peter DeMaria:Okay, and that takes time, but it's happening right now.
Peter DeMaria:So, it will all get rebuilt, but I believe what's going to happen is,
Peter DeMaria:They're not going to set up a scenario whereby this can happen again.
Peter DeMaria:If you imagine that news report, you know, the same thing happened again
Peter DeMaria:here in Palisades and in Altadena.
Peter DeMaria:All those power poles burned down, so they're going to underground that wire.
Peter DeMaria:They're going to put it all underground, but that's going to take some time.
Peter DeMaria:Contamination of the water.
Peter DeMaria:Yeah, I don't figure out the contamination of the water pretty
Peter DeMaria:soon, but the electricity is, I mean, this is the state that said you
Peter DeMaria:can't have a gas appliance, right?
Peter DeMaria:Where you have to use electric appliances.
Peter DeMaria:Well, good luck with that.
Peter DeMaria:So, um, I think, not in a pessimistic standpoint, I think it's going to be
Peter DeMaria:5 to 7 years because I understand how projects are processed and there are
Peter DeMaria:rules already in place that we have.
Peter DeMaria:Let's say you had a home that was 2, 000 square feet.
Peter DeMaria:If you do not build or rebuild larger than 2, 000 square feet, you're expedited
Peter DeMaria:with your plan check and with your building permits and all of that, right?
Peter DeMaria:If I do go above that 2, 000, get in line.
Peter DeMaria:We deal with the original process that we have to battle with really delays
Peter DeMaria:and approvals and all of those things.
Peter DeMaria:So, I, I think that, uh, in that destruction, in, in that catastrophe,
Peter DeMaria:the silver lining is the, the process and the policymaker type of, uh, viewpoint on
Peter DeMaria:things is going to change, dramatically, because now they can see under a
Peter DeMaria:microscope, because of the urgency, how kind of dysfunctional things are.
Peter DeMaria:Now, don't get me wrong, they the morning, they don't get up in the
Peter DeMaria:morning and say, listen, we're going to make the world horrible for architects,
Peter DeMaria:we don't want them to get things done quickly, we have a slow growth.
Peter DeMaria:Initiative here that's unwritten, but this is the way in which we
Peter DeMaria:stop it because we don't want this influx of just, you know, density.
Peter DeMaria:Um, I think they're all well intended, but I think once in a
Peter DeMaria:while, a shakeup like this really forces us to look to a different.
Peter DeMaria:A different lens, you know, to this, to this point, I think they've been
Peter DeMaria:been playing the air guitar right now.
Peter DeMaria:It's time for them to really play, you know, an instrument.
Todd Miller:that's very interesting, I think.
Todd Miller:And thank you for that insight.
Todd Miller:Uh, yeah, I mean, things like this really do kind of shake us up and
Todd Miller:force us to look at things that we never had thought about before.
Todd Miller:One of the things I often say, you know, after a disaster or something that is
Todd Miller:just unheard of, you do learn things that you never even thought of before.
Todd Miller:And so it does open up new ways of thinking and new ways
Todd Miller:of preparing for the future.
Todd Miller:All that takes time.
Todd Miller:So, um, as you mentioned, you use a lot of light gauge steel in your
Todd Miller:designs today at Mid-Rise Modular.
Todd Miller:Um, tell me a little bit, I mean, why do you see steel as sort of a material
Todd Miller:of choice and what role do you see it playing in construction in the future?
Todd Miller:Obviously, we're a big believer in steel here, uh, producing a
Todd Miller:lot of light gauge steel roofing and aluminum roofing, but kind of
Todd Miller:curious for your perspective on that.
Todd Miller:Yeah.
Peter DeMaria:And I think if you even go back to Vitruvius, uh, you, you
Peter DeMaria:look at quality, you look at speed and you look at cost and, um, and
Peter DeMaria:they're not independent of each other.
Peter DeMaria:They are all interwoven.
Peter DeMaria:And when we're working, it's not as though we woke up one day and
Peter DeMaria:said, we need to work in steel.
Peter DeMaria:What you do is you're working in the norm, you're working in wood.
Peter DeMaria:And then after doing your 75th project, where you have the same problem
Peter DeMaria:for the 75th time, you go, there's got to be an alternative to this.
Peter DeMaria:So, when you have water damage while the project's under construction, it's
Peter DeMaria:raining, everything's getting wet, it's wood, you have to wait for it to dry out.
Peter DeMaria:And then you have to worry if you have mold in your building.
Peter DeMaria:You have to worry, am I going to have a fire here in the future
Peter DeMaria:like they did out in the Palisades?
Peter DeMaria:Am I going to have termites in my house?
Peter DeMaria:Is this house going to twist and turn and warp, or am I going to have to put a
Peter DeMaria:tent over it every number of years from who knows what type of termites in there.
Peter DeMaria:It seems like there's a new termite every ten years in California.
Peter DeMaria:So all of those long term costs and continuous maintenance costs are
Peter DeMaria:avoided when you're working in steel.
Peter DeMaria:And I'm able to, and if you really want to talk about it from a sustainability
Peter DeMaria:standpoint, I can't wrap my arms around the carbon footprint equation yet.
Peter DeMaria:I hear about it, I look at it, I still have, the jury's still out for me on that.
Peter DeMaria:But when I look in front of a house, like I did my own home in Manhattan Beach, we
Peter DeMaria:built it, it was a heavy gauge steel frame infilled with light gauge steel panels.
Peter DeMaria:And we had a dumpster in front of the neighbor's house, and they were
Peter DeMaria:building out of wood, and that dumpster was filled every Friday, and they
Peter DeMaria:would have to come and take it away.
Peter DeMaria:We didn't have a dumpster, okay?
Peter DeMaria:And when we didn't have that dumpster, what happened is if we
Peter DeMaria:did have some chopped up steel, you had to lock it up and hide it.
Peter DeMaria:Because folks will come by and steal it and bring it to the recycling yard.
Peter DeMaria:Right?
Peter DeMaria:So even the thieves are into recycling in California.
Peter DeMaria:It's an interesting career, right?
Peter DeMaria:But there's a certain level of sustainable mindset in all of that that says,
Peter DeMaria:Wait a minute, we're going to recycle.
Peter DeMaria:If I'm not mistaken, I think most of the steel we're using, 60 to
Peter DeMaria:70 percent recycled just from automobiles that have been recycled,
Peter DeMaria:you know, back into the recycling.
Peter DeMaria:Line there.
Peter DeMaria:Um, so it has to do with quality as well.
Peter DeMaria:When we're working at Mid-Rise, we, um, we get all our roll forwarding machines
Peter DeMaria:and we run them pretty darn slow.
Peter DeMaria:Okay, we can be in competition with Dietrich Metal and Semco and all
Peter DeMaria:of them, and the industry allows them to be off maybe a quarter of
Peter DeMaria:an inch, even three eighths of an inch with their stuff, that's okay.
Peter DeMaria:But we can't do that.
Peter DeMaria:Okay, we're within a sixteenth of an inch tolerance.
Peter DeMaria:And not only are we rolling joists and studs, but we're punching them
Peter DeMaria:to accommodate screws that are going to come in and fasten a stud
Peter DeMaria:to a track and all those different connections that take place.
Peter DeMaria:So if those holes don't line up, you know, we're going to spend a lot of
Peter DeMaria:time drilling through the metal so it's terribly inefficient so that technology
Peter DeMaria:enables us to reach a level of efficiency that not only takes place on the, on
Peter DeMaria:the metal, don't get me wrong, I love the metal, but I'm not at home praying
Peter DeMaria:to the metal gods at night, you know, but that metal and that framing has a
Peter DeMaria:ripple effect all the way down the line.
Peter DeMaria:We all know what it's like when someone puts in a wood wall
Peter DeMaria:and the wall's not straight.
Peter DeMaria:And the drywall comes, drywall sub comes in, and everybody looks
Peter DeMaria:at the drywall, uh, subcontract and says, Okay, work your magic.
Peter DeMaria:And they're expected to go there, put up their drywall,
Peter DeMaria:and then start skim coating.
Peter DeMaria:And then when they're on the fifth layer, and everything is finally
Peter DeMaria:flat, you know, and they ask for their change order, and everybody goes, Why?
Peter DeMaria:This is annoying.
Peter DeMaria:Do you know you do this on every project, right?
Peter DeMaria:So, here we go as far as, when we're punching those steps
Peter DeMaria:for the holes, there's even a recess, which we call a dimple.
Peter DeMaria:To accommodate for the screw head, and when that screw head runs
Peter DeMaria:flat with my track, that means my drywall comes perfectly straight.
Peter DeMaria:Okay, and we all know after the drywall, then you've got furniture and cabinets
Peter DeMaria:that are going in and everything else.
Peter DeMaria:And all of this really is predicated on, or the efficiency or the accuracy of
Peter DeMaria:all that is predicated on the framing.
Peter DeMaria:So, I just see it as a superior way to build.
Peter DeMaria:And if you're going to do something at a scalable level, okay, I can
Peter DeMaria:run that, I can run that, uh, that rollforming machine all night.
Peter DeMaria:I usually let it go.
Peter DeMaria:And those are here.
Peter DeMaria:So it's never slowing us down, and we're never really compromising on quality.
Peter DeMaria:We're always improving that quality.
Peter DeMaria:I know that was a long answer to a short question, but it's
Peter DeMaria:at the backbone of what we do.
Peter DeMaria:And it's come to the forefront here in LA now because the folks who
Peter DeMaria:experienced those fires, right, and it's more than 5, 000 structures.
Peter DeMaria:Those folks say, okay, we're being reimbursed by our insurance company if
Peter DeMaria:they have the insurance to replace what was there, which was a wood frame house.
Peter DeMaria:So there's the catch 22.
Peter DeMaria:Okay, I just got all these dollars, I'm going to pay to put up my wood frame house
Peter DeMaria:and then go back to the insurance company and say, we don't know if we're even
Peter DeMaria:going to insure your wood frame house.
Peter DeMaria:And we're going to charge you five times the amount.
Peter DeMaria:So what you're seeing now, everyone else is, wait a minute, this light gauge steel
Peter DeMaria:that we've been seeing in every office building in the United States, just about
Peter DeMaria:every hospital, it's indestructible.
Peter DeMaria:Why are we not using it in these fire prone areas, or areas where
Peter DeMaria:there are earthquakes or fires?
Peter DeMaria:So I think people are really being exposed to it for the first time, and like you
Peter DeMaria:mentioned earlier, in adversity is born, um, I don't want to say opportunity, but
Peter DeMaria:creativity, innovation comes out of that adversity, and the everyday person who
Peter DeMaria:wouldn't consider themselves creative, looks at the world differently, and
Peter DeMaria:says, it's a problem, how do I solve that problem, and does that technology
Peter DeMaria:exist, am I reinventing the wheel, and when they come to Miterized, You know, it
Peter DeMaria:doesn't take long with all the steel here and, and like, okay, and it doesn't have
Peter DeMaria:to look like a minimum security prison.
Peter DeMaria:That's the thing.
Peter DeMaria:When they come in and they say, wow, this is, I could have my same home.
Peter DeMaria:And quite frankly, I don't think.
Peter DeMaria:Those homeowners care if there are marshmallows in the wall holding the
Peter DeMaria:house up, so long as it looks and feels like what you're striving for.
Peter DeMaria:The feel just happens to, um, give them the comfort of knowing that building's
Peter DeMaria:going to be there for the generation, not for just a short 20 or 30 year time frame.
Todd Miller:Well, certainly that talk of steel and more metal is music to our ears.
Todd Miller:Um, and I think that's interesting where you say that, you know, modular design
Todd Miller:puts extra demands on manufacturing in terms of precision and accuracy.
Todd Miller:And never really thought of that before.
Todd Miller:I think that's really interesting, but I'm kind of curious.
Todd Miller:So, I mean, you, you were a design guy, you were an architect and
Todd Miller:suddenly you branch into manufacturing.
Todd Miller:How did that happen for you?
Peter DeMaria:Well, he's out here, young architect, and working for another
Peter DeMaria:architect who is doing really large homes for all the movie stars, athletes.
Peter DeMaria:Unlimited budgets, you know, and he's like, wow, this is exciting.
Peter DeMaria:It's cool.
Peter DeMaria:And you're getting a good texture and materials and space and everything
Peter DeMaria:you studied in architecture, right?
Peter DeMaria:And then it's really a thrill.
Peter DeMaria:And then I worked on a project for a bachelor and it was a
Peter DeMaria:22, 000 square foot house.
Peter DeMaria:Okay.
Peter DeMaria:It had a basketball court.
Peter DeMaria:It had subterranean parking garage for 20 cars.
Peter DeMaria:It had a ballroom.
Peter DeMaria:And in that project, I really started to question what was going on.
Peter DeMaria:And I said, is this what I'm here for?
Peter DeMaria:Am I supposed to just create a larger and prettier and more expensive
Peter DeMaria:house with the knowledge that I have?
Peter DeMaria:And I started to really second guess what was happening.
Peter DeMaria:At that point, um, I started to explore design for the folks
Peter DeMaria:who I felt needed it most.
Peter DeMaria:And it's doing nothing, I guess, um, not much different than what
Peter DeMaria:Andy Warhol started out doing.
Peter DeMaria:You know, we get wrapped up in Andy Warhol and the eccentric kind of.
Peter DeMaria:Lifestyle he had and all the things he was doing in New York,
Peter DeMaria:but if I'm not mistaken, he's from your neck of the woods.
Peter DeMaria:He's from Pittsburgh and he started out as a graphic designer and
Peter DeMaria:illustrator and that whole pop art movement was very early on.
Peter DeMaria:Started out saying we should be able to bring art, high quality
Peter DeMaria:art, to the masses, okay?
Peter DeMaria:It shouldn't be just that royal family that has the ability to pay, you know,
Peter DeMaria:200, 000 for a portrait for you to sit down and a famous artist does it.
Peter DeMaria:But everyone should be able to enjoy art.
Peter DeMaria:Because it does, it improves our quality of life, our mindset,
Peter DeMaria:all those different things.
Peter DeMaria:So, what did Warhol do?
Peter DeMaria:He said, I'm not going to sit in there like Vermeer or Da Vinci
Peter DeMaria:or whoever and paint for six, you know, six months and then have a
Peter DeMaria:crew of apprentices to supplement.
Peter DeMaria:He changed the rules.
Peter DeMaria:He said, I'm going to change the manner by which I deliver the art.
Peter DeMaria:So instead of The brushes and oil paint and canvas, he breaks out a silkscreen
Peter DeMaria:machine and starts doing posters, and doesn't do just a one off work of
Peter DeMaria:art, he's doing 500 at a time, right, and there's a lesson in that, and you
Peter DeMaria:say, if you do want to break from the norm, Not only do you have to show a
Peter DeMaria:better path forward, but very often you need to break from the rules because
Peter DeMaria:some of those rules are so entrenched that you cannot move them, right?
Peter DeMaria:And I've seen this over and over and over again.
Peter DeMaria:I gave this example.
Peter DeMaria:Um, uh, and I know it's a little off topic about a friend of mine who started
Peter DeMaria:the ultimate fighting championship.
Peter DeMaria:He came right out of their Brazilian fellows.
Peter DeMaria:They're here in Southern California.
Peter DeMaria:And you try to work within the rules of boxing and all those things to
Peter DeMaria:move forward this idea you have.
Peter DeMaria:And it just wasn't working.
Peter DeMaria:So he said, you know what?
Peter DeMaria:We'll create our own.
Peter DeMaria:Let's do our own thing.
Peter DeMaria:So he created a whole bunch of new rules.
Peter DeMaria:And believe me, whenever you're doing something new, wherever there's progress
Peter DeMaria:You're probably putting someone else out of work I you know, I tell this guy I
Peter DeMaria:said the people who are putting horseshoes on horses and horse drawn Carriages were
Peter DeMaria:really upset with the automobile makers.
Peter DeMaria:All right, because that industry kind of dissolved Well that usc thing that so much
Peter DeMaria:you know I guess opposition, even Senator John McCain was against it, tried to
Peter DeMaria:banish it when it first started in Denver.
Peter DeMaria:But ultimately, folks said, wait a minute, this is another form of
Peter DeMaria:entertainment, dollars can be made, and I think it's the largest grossing sport
Peter DeMaria:in the, uh, In the US right now, maybe internationally, I'm not sure, but it
Peter DeMaria:taught me very early on, sometimes you have to change the rules, you have to find
Peter DeMaria:the loophole within the existing rules, this is where the creativity comes in,
Peter DeMaria:right, because very often, I don't know that we've come up with anything new.
Peter DeMaria:All we're doing is seeing the way things are arranged and maybe some other industry
Peter DeMaria:and readapting it to what we're doing or changing the rules within our industry.
Peter DeMaria:And from that is born the new idea.
Todd Miller:Good stuff.
Todd Miller:Very interesting.
Todd Miller:Well, I'm, I'm kind of curious.
Todd Miller:I mean, looking ahead, um, what is your vision, uh, for Mid-Rise Modular,
Todd Miller:say, over the next decade or so?
Todd Miller:And, um, do you think we really will make some progress set to
Todd Miller:addressing the homeless situation?
Peter DeMaria:Well, two years ago, when we started, it was my mission
Peter DeMaria:to really put a dent in this.
Peter DeMaria:I spent my time between Austin and Los Angeles and in LA, I was in downtown.
Peter DeMaria:And the homeless challenge there, I can't describe it in words.
Peter DeMaria:If you walk that sidewalk, if you can walk the sidewalk, um,
Peter DeMaria:you've not seen anything like it.
Peter DeMaria:And these are human beings.
Peter DeMaria:These are fellow Americans.
Peter DeMaria:These are veterans.
Peter DeMaria:These are people who maybe just down on their luck.
Peter DeMaria:There are people who are mentally incapacitated.
Peter DeMaria:There's some bad guys in there, too.
Peter DeMaria:Don't get me wrong.
Peter DeMaria:I understand that.
Peter DeMaria:I'm not naive.
Peter DeMaria:But all you have to do is sleep on the sidewalk one night, just one
Peter DeMaria:night on concrete, and it's, um, it's a life changing experience.
Peter DeMaria:And no one should be doing that.
Peter DeMaria:And I'm not this kind of utopian Visionary that think we're going
Peter DeMaria:to solve all the world's problems.
Peter DeMaria:I think those problems get solved locally.
Peter DeMaria:And then hopefully you have some success and that works as a case study for others.
Peter DeMaria:And so MidRise is hoping to really help out with what's
Peter DeMaria:taking place in Los Angeles.
Peter DeMaria:And the way that I can do, I'm not a, I'm not a priest, right?
Peter DeMaria:I'm not a politician.
Peter DeMaria:I can't hit it at that huge macro level and make a difference.
Peter DeMaria:But what I do know.
Peter DeMaria:When it comes to construction is really important because I can find a way to get
Peter DeMaria:people indoors affordably and quickly.
Peter DeMaria:So, that is really the inspiration behind, um, Midra.
Peter DeMaria:It's really just Have a home for every family on the planet, but
Peter DeMaria:we know we have to start in their way and the problems we have here.
Peter DeMaria:We see is not just national, but we see it universal in one of my presentation.
Peter DeMaria:I think the 1st slide talks about there's 70, 000 homeless people in California.
Peter DeMaria:I think there's 50, 000 homeless veterans in the US.
Peter DeMaria:Um, but the staggering number is there's 1.
Peter DeMaria:6 billion people on the planet who don't have adequate housing.
Peter DeMaria:And when you start to think about that and you say, well, I'm going to
Peter DeMaria:go to work today and do that 20, 000 square foot house for the bachelor.
Peter DeMaria:Um, it really makes you question what you're here for and what is your mission?
Peter DeMaria:I believe that we all have a mission in life, but some of
Peter DeMaria:us pursue it more than others.
Peter DeMaria:But that's, that's my business partner, Diego Rivera.
Peter DeMaria:He's a genius.
Peter DeMaria:I am the luckiest guy in the world working with Stella and he has
Peter DeMaria:resolved all the technical work.
Peter DeMaria:ahead of it.
Peter DeMaria:He's in the AI, everything is digitally driven.
Peter DeMaria:Our machines will talk to you if you want them to.
Peter DeMaria:And, and you, like I've mentioned earlier, you will figure out all the technical
Peter DeMaria:challenges, why, why are you doing that?
Peter DeMaria:You know, even your show, your show is.
Peter DeMaria:You guys figured out how this telecast would work.
Peter DeMaria:So the volume works and the echo doesn't happen and all that stuff, right?
Peter DeMaria:But you're reaching out to millions of people.
Peter DeMaria:And you're like a, uh, an apostle.
Peter DeMaria:You know, you're spreading that word.
Peter DeMaria:You're much like Buckminster Fuller.
Peter DeMaria:You have impact on people you don't even know.
Peter DeMaria:And that happens also with the projects that we do.
Peter DeMaria:Um, we did a project in downtown Los Angeles, 84 unit apartment building.
Peter DeMaria:And, uh, it's all folks who are on the street at one point.
Peter DeMaria:And I walked in one day, which is everyday clothes.
Peter DeMaria:I was with my son, didn't look like the goofy architect,
Peter DeMaria:dressed in black, you know.
Peter DeMaria:I walk in, and I asked the security guard, he's like, who are you?
Peter DeMaria:You know, I said, do you mind if I take a look at the building?
Peter DeMaria:I said, I was involved with the design a little bit.
Peter DeMaria:He said, sure, come on in and brings me up.
Peter DeMaria:We go up to the fifth floor and I'm with my son and my son's university right now.
Peter DeMaria:And, um, and this woman walks out and she said, who are you?
Peter DeMaria:You know, cause they didn't have, they've never seen me there before.
Peter DeMaria:They kind of know who's there.
Peter DeMaria:And I said, well, I was involved with designing the building.
Peter DeMaria:She said, you designed the building.
Peter DeMaria:I said, well, yeah, for the most part, I said, it was a
Peter DeMaria:great team we collaborated with.
Peter DeMaria:Oh, you're an architect.
Peter DeMaria:I said, yeah.
Peter DeMaria:He said, I'm going to tell you something, man.
Peter DeMaria:What's that?
Peter DeMaria:She said.
Peter DeMaria:This is the most wonderful place I've ever lived in my life,
Todd Miller:Wow.
Peter DeMaria:And I'm sitting there, and you know, some of the archives, we
Peter DeMaria:take it for granted, we design things, somebody puts it up, we look at it, we
Peter DeMaria:take the cool pictures, it gets an award, and then we move on to the next project.
Peter DeMaria:But the impact that it has on individuals just cannot be measured.
Peter DeMaria:Right?
Peter DeMaria:So those awards you spoke about early on, I can get the awards all day long.
Peter DeMaria:But, but those moments are the special moments, right?
Peter DeMaria:And, uh, I think that I just can't put a, um, I just can't put a price on that.
Peter DeMaria:And so MidRise, we don't go out to seek those moments.
Peter DeMaria:Those moments are a consequence of our commitment to what we do.
Peter DeMaria:So I, um, yeah, that's a great question.
Peter DeMaria:I'm glad you asked that.
Peter DeMaria:I really appreciate it.
Peter DeMaria:Get in there and think about it.
Peter DeMaria:Sure.
Todd Miller:Well, and I saw that where the lady living in the one, uh,
Todd Miller:you know, development project you'd put together talked about how this
Todd Miller:is just an amazing place to live.
Todd Miller:And, um, I, if nothing else, uh, this interview has made me very anxious
Todd Miller:to come out to LA sometime and spend some time with you and Diego and,
Todd Miller:uh, see what you're doing and see it firsthand because, uh, you are
Todd Miller:touching on some big stuff here.
Todd Miller:And I certainly applaud you for that.
Todd Miller:Um, so I know that you attended and you mentioned it earlier.
Todd Miller:You attended the recent international builder show.
Todd Miller:Um, anything stand out that you saw or heard, um, when you were at the show that
Todd Miller:you were saying, that's something that's going to make a difference in the future.
Peter DeMaria:One of the things I saw that when I was at the builder
Peter DeMaria:show, gosh, 10 years ago, they didn't have a modular village.
Peter DeMaria:They had just you walked into 3 million square feet in the convention
Peter DeMaria:center and you just walked and walked and walked and after.
Peter DeMaria:Three hours, you're intoxicated with building materials on your mind.
Peter DeMaria:You really couldn't differentiate a door from a faucet, you
Peter DeMaria:know, become numb to it all.
Peter DeMaria:But here they had a little village with all of these modular examples out there.
Peter DeMaria:So you could go in and kick the tire.
Peter DeMaria:And that was really exciting to see.
Peter DeMaria:And then there is a, there's a company that we, uh, we work with.
Peter DeMaria:And it's called FIBO.
Peter DeMaria:F I B O. And FIBO, I mean, And FIBO creates primarily
Peter DeMaria:wet room or shower panels.
Peter DeMaria:They're prefabricated and we are constantly reverse engineering
Peter DeMaria:anything in the construction world.
Peter DeMaria:So you'll be familiar with this.
Peter DeMaria:Anyone who's working in wood construction has to put up a shower.
Peter DeMaria:It's a, it's a process.
Peter DeMaria:I mean, you have to put up a scratch coat, you have to put up waterproofing.
Peter DeMaria:You have greenboard, you have a hot mop with tar.
Peter DeMaria:No one wants to be on the J. When the hot mop guys are there,
Peter DeMaria:they fill it up with water.
Peter DeMaria:They wait two days.
Peter DeMaria:The inspector comes, he comes back.
Peter DeMaria:There's another inspection of the, the, the stuck or the waterproofing
Peter DeMaria:or mud and mortar, the sun.
Peter DeMaria:And you sit there after two weeks and go, can we please start the shower?
Peter DeMaria:You know, when it's this process, right?
Peter DeMaria:I'm building showers the same way since Pompeii, right?
Peter DeMaria:And it's just always been that way.
Peter DeMaria:Well, this company has been in business in Europe for quite some time.
Peter DeMaria:They've been here in the States, but we want to really encourage
Peter DeMaria:people to use their product.
Peter DeMaria:What it does is it's a marine grade plywood with a surface on it.
Peter DeMaria:Okay, and that surface can look like tile, it can look like stone,
Peter DeMaria:and it's a composite material.
Peter DeMaria:But when those two materials come together, not only do they tongue
Peter DeMaria:and groove, but they snap together and you cannot see the joint.
Peter DeMaria:I'm sitting there, like, you know, they have, um, I'm just trying to test
Peter DeMaria:it, and I just couldn't see the joint.
Peter DeMaria:This is incredible.
Peter DeMaria:Well, all of that process that I spoke to you about, about the waterproofing, We're
Peter DeMaria:doing a traditional tile or stone bathroom or even an FRP shower stall is gone.
Peter DeMaria:One person can install an entire bathroom, not just the shower, in one day.
Peter DeMaria:And I don't need any of those crazy inspections.
Peter DeMaria:This material leapfrogs all of that.
Peter DeMaria:They say, wait a minute, you're going to line your shower with wood?
Peter DeMaria:You're the steel guy.
Peter DeMaria:What's going on?
Peter DeMaria:That's the only wood I'll use in an entire project.
Peter DeMaria:So that, uh, that marine grade plywood absolves us of all
Peter DeMaria:those waterproofing issues.
Peter DeMaria:It's easy to install.
Peter DeMaria:Those people who work there are incredible.
Peter DeMaria:They have, they're, I mean, folks come out and do installations.
Peter DeMaria:They have videos.
Peter DeMaria:They make it so simple for you.
Peter DeMaria:And everyone I share this with, including the traditional
Peter DeMaria:contractors and the traditional architects say, I have to use this.
Peter DeMaria:Right.
Peter DeMaria:It just makes sense.
Peter DeMaria:So they have a display there.
Peter DeMaria:And, um, and that's why I go to the show because there's got to be 25,
Peter DeMaria:30, 000 products on display there.
Todd Miller:Oh, it's, it's overwhelming.
Todd Miller:It's amazing.
Peter DeMaria:Yeah.
Peter DeMaria:It is a woman, but if I can find two products.
Peter DeMaria:That I'm really enamored with.
Peter DeMaria:It changes the way we do things.
Peter DeMaria:That's a, that's a successful trick.
Peter DeMaria:So I try to be real discerning.
Peter DeMaria:And one of the things we're doing that we created in Los Angeles,
Peter DeMaria:something called Team Prefab, right?
Peter DeMaria:And it's TEAMprefab.
Peter DeMaria:com.
Peter DeMaria:And TEAMprefab is responding to exactly what you're talking about,
Peter DeMaria:where instead of having to go to the Builder Show once a year in Las Vegas
Peter DeMaria:and have to deal with I don't know.
Peter DeMaria:They must have 600, 000 people walking through that place, you know, and after
Peter DeMaria:a while, it's like going to the World's Fair or, you know, the pregame Super
Peter DeMaria:Bowl festivities, and it's just madness.
Peter DeMaria:The Team Prefab is a center whereby anything that is modular friendly and
Peter DeMaria:modular focused is brought under one roof.
Peter DeMaria:In California, in Los Angeles, and they have a little village there
Peter DeMaria:where they're installing just like at the builder show prototypes
Peter DeMaria:from different modular companies.
Peter DeMaria:So that's critical.
Peter DeMaria:Imagine you are in, uh, in the Palisades and you're trying to get a prefab
Peter DeMaria:house, get back in, or you even want an ADU or something along those lines.
Peter DeMaria:You really can't go kick the tires somewhere.
Peter DeMaria:If I like the guys in Utah, I have to go to Utah to see it.
Peter DeMaria:I have to go to Ohio and see it.
Peter DeMaria:Um, I, I, I have to make that effort, but here we're consolidating it all in
Peter DeMaria:one spot and you get to go there and, and benefit from all the experience
Peter DeMaria:and from the modular industry.
Peter DeMaria:There's no place where it coalesces in one spot, like the International
Peter DeMaria:Builder Show does for construction.
Peter DeMaria:So, um, but the Builder Show is always inspiring and you can go there and you
Peter DeMaria:can learn a tremendous amount of what's going on, not only in construction,
Peter DeMaria:but how they bring it to the public.
Peter DeMaria:They, they really make it accessible.
Peter DeMaria:It was a great trip.
Peter DeMaria:I could only stay for one day, but it was, it was a great trip.
Todd Miller:So that other, you said was team prefab.
Todd Miller:com.
Todd Miller:Is that right?
Peter DeMaria:Yes.
Todd Miller:I'm gonna check that out today.
Todd Miller:Great.
Todd Miller:Um, so I'm curious, what advice would you have for someone out there who may be
Todd Miller:younger and just starting their career in design or construction or manufacturing?
Todd Miller:Um, what advice might you have for them?
Peter DeMaria:Well, I, in the last six months, I've been hearing
Peter DeMaria:how AI is the enemy of mankind.
Peter DeMaria:I, I, uh, I was speaking to a young lady in high school, and she said, I said,
Peter DeMaria:you know, everyone's scared of this.
Peter DeMaria:I said, but your, your generation, I'm sure is embracing this.
Peter DeMaria:And, and it's a tool, you know, you're really going to
Peter DeMaria:make some great things happen.
Peter DeMaria:She said, oh, no, no, no, no.
Peter DeMaria:This is not good.
Peter DeMaria:You know, so in the schools already, they're talking about how this is
Peter DeMaria:something that's not, not friendly, and I can tell all these younger folks,
Peter DeMaria:um, imagine when, uh, you're sitting in Missouri, let's say, okay, and it's
Peter DeMaria:1910, and you have a horse, and you have a horse drawn cart or something.
Peter DeMaria:And this thing with wheels on it comes rolling down the street making noise and
Peter DeMaria:there's smoke coming out of the back of it and you're like, this is what is this,
Peter DeMaria:you know, we're being invaded, right?
Peter DeMaria:So I think in every major technological age, there's this
Peter DeMaria:fear that we have as human beings.
Peter DeMaria:It's a survival mechanism, right?
Peter DeMaria:Uh, I remember when, uh, my, uh, my great aunt, I have all these notes that came
Peter DeMaria:from Italy, and my mom telling me, you know, when they put the first man on the
Peter DeMaria:moon in the early 60s, she said, these Italian women, these old Italian ladies
Peter DeMaria:that barely spoke English, said, you know, the end of the world is coming now, right?
Peter DeMaria:Because there's this fear of the unknown.
Peter DeMaria:And I would tell folks that don't be scared,
Todd Miller:Yeah,
Peter DeMaria:it, the technology is just getting stronger, the people
Peter DeMaria:are, are, are, there's more and more intellectual thought that's spread out.
Peter DeMaria:Are people smarter?
Peter DeMaria:I don't know, but I do know the exchange of that information.
Peter DeMaria:It's happening at a much larger scale, so the resources at your disposal
Peter DeMaria:have never been that, that plentiful to any other generation before you.
Peter DeMaria:So, embrace that, take the blinders off, um, become a lifelong
Peter DeMaria:student, a lifelong learner.
Peter DeMaria:Uh, and, and I, I wish I could say, go out there and be that architect, but I think
Peter DeMaria:the architecture profession is shifting.
Peter DeMaria:I think that the folks like myself want to be able to bring a better product,
Peter DeMaria:a better process to that world of construction and to pursue the same old
Peter DeMaria:process, I think it's almost negligent.
Peter DeMaria:You know, you, you, I don't know how we do that.
Peter DeMaria:Everything in our lives is really about improving our condition, making
Peter DeMaria:it better for the next generation.
Peter DeMaria:Um, and I think that's something inherent to who we are as human beings,
Peter DeMaria:so to not do that in the building industry when you have the ability,
Peter DeMaria:um, I think it's very short sighted, you know, to, to not pursue that path,
Peter DeMaria:but, um, just get out there and do it.
Peter DeMaria:I, I, we, we have something what we call productized architecture.
Peter DeMaria:Okay, so it's this fusing of a hybrid of product design and product
Peter DeMaria:manufacturing with architecture.
Peter DeMaria:And when you do that, it requires you to make some changes.
Peter DeMaria:And not everyone's going to be happy with those changes.
Peter DeMaria:But there are going to be some people who are just absolutely thrilled.
Peter DeMaria:You know, and if you can reach that one person at that apartment buildings that
Peter DeMaria:never lived in a house like this before.
Peter DeMaria:And it was not because it was a modular building.
Peter DeMaria:I can tell you what you're doing has impact on the world.
Peter DeMaria:And they really, at the micro and macro level, and if you stay focused
Peter DeMaria:on that, you'll always have a client, first of all, you'll always have
Peter DeMaria:someone you'll be able to serve, but necessity is the mother of invention.
Peter DeMaria:And I think innovation in the future is really going to set you
Peter DeMaria:apart from the rest of the pack.
Todd Miller:well, better to adopt technology and change
Todd Miller:than to be buried by it.
Todd Miller:And I think back when I was younger and handheld calculators first came out.
Todd Miller:Yes.
Todd Miller:To listen to the older generations, that was going to be the demise of mankind.
Todd Miller:Um, but, uh, yeah.
Todd Miller:That didn't quite turn out that way.
Todd Miller:Um, so Peter, um, this has been a great discussion.
Todd Miller:Thank you.
Todd Miller:Um, we're close to wrapping up what we call the business end of things.
Todd Miller:Anything you haven't been able to share with the audience today that you
Todd Miller:wanted to squeeze in here at the end?
Peter DeMaria:Sure, I think, first of all, thank you both so much
Peter DeMaria:for providing a forum for, uh.
Peter DeMaria:For us to reach out this industry.
Peter DeMaria:I spoke to someone, uh, not long ago.
Peter DeMaria:And I say, you know, this industry is in its infancy.
Peter DeMaria:And what are you talking about?
Peter DeMaria:People have been trying this for the last hundred years.
Peter DeMaria:I said, yeah, but the perfect storm is now upon us.
Peter DeMaria:I said, with technology, there's really a global marketplace.
Peter DeMaria:I can get materials from anywhere.
Peter DeMaria:And, um, I don't want it to be a cliche, you know, but when
Peter DeMaria:they say, if you can, If you can think it, you can make it happen.
Peter DeMaria:You can dream it, you can make it happen.
Peter DeMaria:And it's just a matter of surrounding yourself with the people who have
Peter DeMaria:maybe shared that vision or have that knowledge that, that, that
Peter DeMaria:really enables you to collaborate and, and do some incredible things.
Peter DeMaria:So, I, I, I, I, um, I'm inspired to come on your show.
Peter DeMaria:Are you asking the right questions here?
Peter DeMaria:And and i'm happy to think about to share, you know, so when you do come
Peter DeMaria:out to california come to see our factory Um, we'll be happy to host you
Peter DeMaria:and show you what we've done and hoping we're making a positive difference.
Todd Miller:I'm going to make sure that happens.
Todd Miller:Thank you.
Todd Miller:So, um, now we're at a time of the show, uh, where we do something
Todd Miller:called rapid fire questions.
Todd Miller:So, uh, Peter, these are seven questions.
Todd Miller:You have no idea.
Todd Miller:We're about to ask, uh, are you up to the challenge of rapid fire?
Peter DeMaria:All right big time Of course
Todd Miller:Okay.
Todd Miller:Um, let's go ahead and get started.
Todd Miller:Ryan, you want to ask the first question?
Ryan Bell:Yes, I would love to question.
Ryan Bell:Number one.
Ryan Bell:Can you tell us about a product or service that you have
Ryan Bell:purchased or obtained recently?
Ryan Bell:That was kind of a real game changer for you.
Ryan Bell:Anything like a new calendar app or anything like that?
Peter DeMaria:people.
Peter DeMaria:Yeah people.
Peter DeMaria:Sorry.
Peter DeMaria:I cheated on that one.
Peter DeMaria:Yeah, I
Todd Miller:What is that?
Peter DeMaria:Oh, I can explain that.
Peter DeMaria:That's what I spoke about earlier.
Peter DeMaria:That shower, the shower technology.
Todd Miller:Okay.
Todd Miller:Gotcha.
Todd Miller:Good stuff.
Todd Miller:I'm gonna check that out.
Todd Miller:Um, question number two.
Todd Miller:Uh, what is something available today that is related to construction or design,
Todd Miller:um, that you would put in a time capsule for folks to discover 200 years from now?
Todd Miller:Um, something you think it's that important that this should not
Todd Miller:be missed 200 years from now.
Peter DeMaria:It'd be a simple sheet of paper
Todd Miller:Oh, wow.
Peter DeMaria:that says, practice, kindness, help your fellow man.
Peter DeMaria:The tools are going to change.
Peter DeMaria:That time capsule.
Peter DeMaria:I mean, to your point, yeah, I could put our roll forwarding machine in there.
Peter DeMaria:I can put all our apps in our smartphone.
Peter DeMaria:And they'll look at it and go, this is the way the cavemen used to live.
Peter DeMaria:We don't live that way anymore, right?
Peter DeMaria:But I think the universal message, no matter what the generation, is
Peter DeMaria:one of, just help your fellow man.
Peter DeMaria:Make the world a better place.
Peter DeMaria:Leave it better than how you found it.
Todd Miller:Love it.
Ryan Bell:Great answer.
Ryan Bell:Question number three, if you could ban one word from existence, what would it be?
Ryan Bell:And why?
Peter DeMaria:It would be, um, pessimism.
Peter DeMaria:I've seen so many incredible people in our field.
Peter DeMaria:And I've taught.
Peter DeMaria:I've taught for 20 years.
Peter DeMaria:And we have folks to come in, and I can tell you, talent is everywhere.
Peter DeMaria:It really is.
Peter DeMaria:It's everywhere.
Peter DeMaria:But some folks leverage it, and other people just shoot it down themselves.
Peter DeMaria:They don't give themselves that opportunity to exercise that part
Peter DeMaria:of their brain, that muscle in their brain that's really inquisitive.
Peter DeMaria:And for whatever the reason, you know, they won't pursue it, and
Peter DeMaria:things get kind of cut short.
Peter DeMaria:And I, and I think in that discovery of doing something innovative or
Peter DeMaria:that discovery of you're capable of doing something is, is the, um,
Peter DeMaria:you plant the seeds for growth for your entire life and your work,
Peter DeMaria:your family, all of that, right?
Peter DeMaria:And I'm, I'm not this kind of born again, uh, priest, right?
Peter DeMaria:I'm talking about just some basic, basic needs that we have as individuals.
Peter DeMaria:To stay positive because the world is a rough place, you know, and,
Peter DeMaria:uh, I, when I see the pessimism, especially with students that come in
Peter DeMaria:and they're at a university setting, they're in shorts, tank tops, they're
Peter DeMaria:completely relaxed, I mean, there's a war going on in the Ukraine.
Peter DeMaria:You realize that someone your age is over there, tank top, and so
Peter DeMaria:you're lucky to have an army jacket on and probably being shot at.
Peter DeMaria:So, you know, be thankful for where you are and make the best of that situation.
Peter DeMaria:The pessimism is the thing that pulls people back too often.
Peter DeMaria:Sometimes it's a great thing because it prepares you for the worst case
Peter DeMaria:scenario, and I kind of like that, you know, you experience, you sit there
Peter DeMaria:and go, okay, this could work out bad, you know, what's dangerous, right?
Peter DeMaria:And what's not safe?
Peter DeMaria:And it protects you in some ways, but in general, I think it kind
Peter DeMaria:of stops so much progress and so many great things from happening.
Todd Miller:That's a great answer.
Todd Miller:Man, I've enjoyed this conversation so much.
Todd Miller:So, um, next question.
Todd Miller:What is something that you are curious about right now?
Todd Miller:Maybe something you might be researching or trying to learn about?
Peter DeMaria:This has nothing to do with architecture.
Todd Miller:And I hoped, I hoped it wouldn't.
Peter DeMaria:yeah, that's great.
Peter DeMaria:Yeah, you're right.
Peter DeMaria:So I, the, I am fascinated with Roman history.
Peter DeMaria:Every time I, I, I'll give you real quick.
Peter DeMaria:I go to Rome, I've been to Rome many times and I've seen everything
Peter DeMaria:and I've studied everything there.
Peter DeMaria:And I'm in the taxi and we're going to see an in-law outside of Rome, we're
Peter DeMaria:going to dinner and we get into taxi cab.
Peter DeMaria:And in my broken Italian, I'm speaking to the cab driver and I
Peter DeMaria:said, listen, it's Friday night.
Peter DeMaria:There's traffic everywhere.
Peter DeMaria:How come you guys don't have, like, a subway?
Peter DeMaria:I said, every, in Budapest, I said, everybody has a subway in Europe.
Peter DeMaria:And that's how you get around.
Peter DeMaria:He said, we have two of them.
Peter DeMaria:I'm like, okay.
Peter DeMaria:He said, but they're really small.
Peter DeMaria:And I said, I've never even heard of the subway in Rome.
Peter DeMaria:He said, why don't they have a major metro link or something?
Peter DeMaria:He goes, every time we've tried, we get down, whether it's 20
Peter DeMaria:feet, 60 feet, we hit a building.
Peter DeMaria:He said, and the archaeologists come in, and all the historians, and they go,
Peter DeMaria:no, stop, we don't have the Italians, nothing gets built in a day, right?
Peter DeMaria:They stop.
Peter DeMaria:He said, finally, the government said, forget it, we're not doing it.
Peter DeMaria:So I'm sitting there, and I'm not ready to start complaining about the traffic,
Peter DeMaria:but what dawned on me is, everything I thought I knew about Roman history,
Peter DeMaria:I know only a small percentage of it.
Peter DeMaria:If you think about it, the Romans were really overthrown
Peter DeMaria:around, what, 1000 AD, right?
Peter DeMaria:Well, from then until, like, the Renaissance, which was almost 300
Peter DeMaria:years, there was no Italy, there were no Romans, there were city states.
Peter DeMaria:Each of those different cities kind of ruled themselves.
Peter DeMaria:They would fight with each other as well.
Peter DeMaria:Well, when you go to Rome and you see the Colosseum, if I'm in Los Angeles and
Peter DeMaria:I abandon a house here, I go on vacation for a month, I don't have to worry that
Peter DeMaria:some homeless folks haven't moved in.
Peter DeMaria:And when they move in, what's the first thing they do?
Peter DeMaria:They loot the place.
Peter DeMaria:They take all the copper out.
Peter DeMaria:They sell the copper.
Peter DeMaria:You come back and it's a shell of what it was.
Peter DeMaria:Well, this happened for 300 years in Rome.
Peter DeMaria:People came in, they stripped the marble off of the Colosseum.
Peter DeMaria:What you're seeing in Rome is the skeletal structure of what once was there.
Peter DeMaria:So, what was looted and removed from that place is beyond comprehension.
Peter DeMaria:I can't get my, my mental arms around it.
Peter DeMaria:You know, so, it's always something new there.
Peter DeMaria:I, I know you, that story will never Be finished, uh, in terms of being written,
Peter DeMaria:it, it was just a, it just goes on and on.
Peter DeMaria:So it's always a wonderful discovery and the food is excellent.
Peter DeMaria:So there's a reason for me to go back to Italy over and over and over again.
Todd Miller:There you go.
Todd Miller:Love it.
Ryan Bell:Very cool.
Ryan Bell:My, uh, oldest stepdaughter is actually studying abroad over there right now.
Ryan Bell:And she, she is loving it.
Ryan Bell:She's, uh, staying in Florence, but she's traveling every weekend.
Ryan Bell:She's in Budapest right now.
Ryan Bell:Actually, she just got there today.
Ryan Bell:So yeah, we're, we love hearing the stories and seeing
Ryan Bell:the pictures over there.
Peter DeMaria:food at best as well.
Ryan Bell:Hopefully we can make it over to visit.
Ryan Bell:Yeah.
Peter DeMaria:do it.
Peter DeMaria:You need three or four weeks minimum.
Peter DeMaria:Don't do that five day trip with the flag that you'll follow around
Ryan Bell:that's, that's what I've heard.
Ryan Bell:Yep.
Ryan Bell:All right.
Ryan Bell:Uh, next question.
Ryan Bell:What is your favorite meal?
Peter DeMaria:It's just about any darn pasta, you know, I, I'm a pasta fiend.
Peter DeMaria:I, I, I, that's it.
Peter DeMaria:I mean, just tell me whatever the pasta is.
Peter DeMaria:I, I'm in, um, don't get me wrong.
Peter DeMaria:I mean, we went to Italy last summer and from Italy, we went to Japan and
Peter DeMaria:my God, I mean, I was so spoiled.
Peter DeMaria:You know, it's, it's, um, Japanese food is incredible as well, but
Peter DeMaria:I, I have to say pasta And um, that, that's a good, that's it.
Peter DeMaria:I don't want to go beyond that one.
Peter DeMaria:It's just imposter.
Todd Miller:Awesome.
Todd Miller:Next to last question.
Todd Miller:What would the eight year old you have said that you
Todd Miller:wanted to be when you grew up?
Peter DeMaria:Oh, I had it all planned out.
Peter DeMaria:I was going to play for, I was going to play for the L.
Peter DeMaria:A. Rams and the L. A. Lakers.
Peter DeMaria:And I was from New Jersey.
Todd Miller:Okay.
Peter DeMaria:Ha ha!
Todd Miller:in LA, so that's good.
Peter DeMaria:ha!
Peter DeMaria:I'm feeling good about that now!
Peter DeMaria:That's funny, I may have been just me and one other young guy we played
Peter DeMaria:football growing up and we were the only LA fans I think for maybe 3, 000
Peter DeMaria:miles, you know, and, um, and then the Lakers on top, you guys would know this,
Peter DeMaria:I mean, Will Chamberlain and, and Gail Goodrich and, and, and the Lakers had,
Peter DeMaria:uh, Roman Gabriel, all these throwback guys, you know, you talk about today,
Peter DeMaria:and it was exciting to watch them, and, and I had an uncle who had moved
Peter DeMaria:to, um, to Los Angeles in the 60s.
Peter DeMaria:And, you know, he was in World War II and all that, but he was
Peter DeMaria:always cut from a different call.
Peter DeMaria:He was always a little bit wilder than the rest of the family, and he
Peter DeMaria:would come and visit in his Corvette.
Peter DeMaria:And there was kind of this mystique about California, it
Peter DeMaria:was kind of this cool place.
Peter DeMaria:So I, I didn't know anything about it, really, but I like the two sports
Peter DeMaria:teams and my career got sidetracked.
Peter DeMaria:Um, I, um, I don't know what happened there, but, uh, I, I, that career
Peter DeMaria:as a, as a professional athlete.
Peter DeMaria:Um, It didn't work out.
Peter DeMaria:I think it went from eight years old to maybe 12 years old, and it wasn't,
Peter DeMaria:it wasn't like I was in the NFL for a few years and then got an injury,
Peter DeMaria:you know, but all good, all good.
Todd Miller:At some point, reality set in.
Todd Miller:I understand.
Peter DeMaria:Yeah,
Ryan Bell:All right.
Ryan Bell:Uh, final question here.
Ryan Bell:We'll end on a little bit more of a serious note.
Ryan Bell:What would you like to be remembered for at the end of your days
Peter DeMaria:you know, I don't, I don't want to defuse the question.
Peter DeMaria:I don't know if it's important.
Peter DeMaria:For me to be remembered as long as there's a few photographs out there to
Peter DeMaria:share with the kids and the families that that's the crazy uncle that did,
Peter DeMaria:you know, tried to make a difference, you know, that's, that's good enough for me.
Peter DeMaria:I, I, um, I, I, I, I've never, I mean, I don't think about that.
Peter DeMaria:Um, maybe by design.
Peter DeMaria:I'm not thinking about it subconsciously, but just leave that one alone.
Peter DeMaria:You got enough to do now.
Peter DeMaria:Don't worry about what's happening later.
Peter DeMaria:Um, yeah.
Peter DeMaria:But now, because you planted the seed, I'm going to spend the
Peter DeMaria:day walking through the factory.
Peter DeMaria:What am I going to be remembered for, right?
Peter DeMaria:And I'm sure some guy in the factory line here will say,
Peter DeMaria:What should I be remembered for?
Peter DeMaria:Just go get us some lunch.
Peter DeMaria:We'll remember you.
Peter DeMaria:We'll remember you all week long if you do that.
Peter DeMaria:But that's a great question.
Peter DeMaria:Sometimes that's a measuring stick, you know.
Peter DeMaria:It's a guideline.
Peter DeMaria:So I, I'll, I'll send you an email on that one.
Peter DeMaria:Thank you.
Todd Miller:Well, that's, that's a good answer, though.
Todd Miller:And so, Peter, you impressed me as a simple guy, but with a big forward
Todd Miller:thinking mission, and I love that.
Todd Miller:So, um, for anyone who wants to get in touch with you, um, or with
Todd Miller:MidRise Modular, what are some good ways for them to do that?
Peter DeMaria:Well, there, there's two ways.
Peter DeMaria:One is you, you can, the best way to just go onto our website
Peter DeMaria:and, uh, midrisemodular.com.
Peter DeMaria:Uh, if you wanna get into really direct contact with me, you can
Peter DeMaria:go onto demariadesign.com and De Maria Design, uh, website is really
Peter DeMaria:the architectural end of things.
Peter DeMaria:Mid-Rise is where it all comes together as a vertically integrated company.
Peter DeMaria:So we still get hired to do traditional projects.
Peter DeMaria:People think we're pretty good at what we do, but they don't want
Peter DeMaria:to get involved in modular, right?
Peter DeMaria:But we still think all those things we were speaking about,
Peter DeMaria:we can bring to the forefront.
Peter DeMaria:Um, if it works in modular, it does, but if not, we know our
Peter DeMaria:responsibility as architects.
Peter DeMaria:There's one other ways they should simply come onto your podcast, right?
Peter DeMaria:And they get, you've got this interview.
Peter DeMaria:They're going to know all about me just listening to the podcast.
Peter DeMaria:And, uh, and gosh, if I get ahold of this, I'll share this with the potential
Peter DeMaria:clients, this is the way it goes.
Peter DeMaria:Okay.
Peter DeMaria:Speak to Todd, speak to Ryan and, um, you'll get, you'll get an in
Peter DeMaria:depth understanding of what we do and how you can get ahold of us
Todd Miller:Well, we appreciate that.
Todd Miller:Thank you.
Todd Miller:And we will put your contact information in the show notes as well.
Todd Miller:So, um, Peter, this has been great.
Todd Miller:Thank you so much for your time, uh, for being with us here today.
Todd Miller:And, uh, just to let our audience know, we all got in our challenge words.
Todd Miller:Ryan, you had the word,
Ryan Bell:calendar?
Todd Miller:you got it in there.
Todd Miller:I had Buckeye and Peter, you, your word was, or your phrase was,
Peter DeMaria:there.
Peter DeMaria:Guitar.
Todd Miller:And you worked it in well, thank you.
Todd Miller:Thank you.
Todd Miller:Well, this has been a lot of fun again.
Todd Miller:Thank you very much, Peter.
Todd Miller:And thank you to our audience for tuning into this very special episode
Todd Miller:of Construction Disruption with Peter DeMaria of MidRise Modular LLC.
Todd Miller:Please watch for future episodes of our podcast.
Todd Miller:We always are blessed with great guests.
Todd Miller:Please feel free to leave a review on.
Todd Miller:Apple podcasts, or give us a thumbs up on YouTube until the next time we're
Todd Miller:together, though, keep on disrupting, keep on challenging, uh, those
Todd Miller:challenging those in the world around you to better ways of doing things.
Todd Miller:And don't forget to have a positive impact on everyone you encounter.
Todd Miller:Uh, make them smile, encourage them simple yet powerful things we all can do.
Todd Miller:So God bless and take care.
Todd Miller:This is Isaiah industry signing off until the next episode
Todd Miller:of construction disruption.