Rocio Romero: LV Series

By Robert Musial

Rocio Romero is a Chilean American architect that is located in Perryville, Missouri. Romero studied at the University of California at Berkeley receiving a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Environmental Design with a Major in Architecture and also received a master’s of architecture from Southern California Institute of Architecture. Rocio Romero LLC produces a kit house, kit house is a house plan design with all the supplies having a fixed prices of all material needed for construction, concept to design a modern and pre fabrication dwelling.  

 

(Image: design.ncsu.edu)

The LV Series originally started from her building a dwelling for her parents in Laguna Verde, Chile, hence how the LV Series has received its name. Next from building the dwelling in Laguna Verde, Chile she has redefined the LV Series by building a weekend retreat for her family in Perryville, Missouri. The concept behind the LV series is simplicity, spatial quality, and sustainability.  The LV Series is a kit that comes with plans, instructions, and parts for the exterior construction of the shell of the dwelling. The plans of the drawings are well detailed enough to allow construction worker to get permits from local jurisdiction. The LV Series instructions come with construction manual, materials list, schedule, specifications, and an informative DVD showing how the kit design comes together. With the abundance amount of information provided in the kit it allows for the owner to build the kit house by themselves or for a general contractor to build.

The LV Series come in four standard options: LV Home, LV Large, LV mini, and LV garage.  The LV Home is a 1,150 square foot design that provides a living room, dining room, kitchen, two bedroom, two bathroom, and closet starting at $36,870. The LV Large is a 1,453 square foot design that provides a living room, dining room, kitchen, three bedroom, two bathroom, and closet starting at $42,950. The LV Mini is a 625 square foot design that provides a one bedroom, one bathroom, kitchen, living/ dining area starting at $24,950. LV garage is a 625 square foot garage port starting at $20,570.  There are also other options that can be added for example the LV tower and the LV court yard.  Also if needed there is upgrades options for seismic and high wind area.

The LV units come in a standard with of 25 ft - 1 in but vary in length. The LV units are meant to be freestanding or can be combined to create a larger home or in a housing complex. Wall panels come in 2 x 6 or 2 x 4 framed exterior wall with ½ in OSB. The post and beams come in at 4 in x 4 in steel posts and glue beams that create large opening in the exterior walls. The steel post are prefabricated into the top and bottom plates and the glue lam beams are 5-12 in x 11- 7/8in and come in large 24 ft sections. The LV home comes standard with Kynar 500 coated galvanized steel. This allow for clean finish look with no rivet, blot, screw and glue.  The LV kit is manufactured and shipped by Branstrator Corp out of Indiana.

The LV unit allows for owners to buy different options type to create their own home. With the easy of this kit the owner right off the bat know what kind of materials are going into the house which allow for him to know the cost of the project. Also the kit provides with well enough detail that can even allow the owner to attempt to build this home kit on his own. This is a well design prefab home as over 163 LV units in 29 states have sold and built.