With 173 stacked, rotated and offset shipping containers, 83 Freight is bringing new options to Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston industrial neighborhood, honoring the city’s working past while nodding to its growing maker and artisan community.

Those reused shipping containers make 83 residential units, ranging from micro-studios to one- and two-bedroom flats. The project was an experiment, with architects, engineers and contractors coming together to devise a new construction technique and process from sourcing containers domestically to the site itself, which presented the first challenge: a large sinkhole in one corner.

The sinkhole, as well as substantial soil heaps existing on the site, required more than 300 micro-pile foundations across the site which had to be driven to bedrock depth, including some to almost 90 feet below grade. Another challenge was lay-down room given the size of the shipping containers that crews were working with, making the scheduling of fabrication and receipt critical.