Jesuit Journeys  
Spring/Summer 2001  

Building A Dream for the Future

Be it an AIDS orphanage, a hospice, a central city school, a neighborhood job training center, or even a complex satellite communications network, the Jesuit tradition is rich with the efforts of men who followed an idea and developed exciting, new ministries. With help from a former student, Br. Mike Wilmot, SJ may be heading down a similar path on Omaha's North Side.

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By Phil Nero

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     Br. Mike Wilmot, SJ trudges up a snow-slick path to a structure-in-progress, the current stage of which resembles a two-story bunker. Passing through a makeshift plywood door, he is greeted inside the roofless building by Roger Buck, a local carpenter. They discuss a minor problem with setting the interior floor joists, agree on a solution, and resume work.
     Br. Jerry Peltz, SJ joins them later, and they update him on the job for which this trio is the main building crew - a new home on Lafayette Street on Omaha's north side.

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Br. Wilmot (left picture) reviews blueprints with Phillip McKeone, president of Daedalus Construction, who is financing the project. Br. Peltz and Buck (right picture) frame out a section of studs for an interior wall.

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     Any new home construction here would draw attention. Not many people build in neighborhoods in transition. This towering residence-to-be, however, draws gawkers not only for where it is being built, but how - a little-used method known as tilt-up construction said to originate with Thomas Edison.
     Design involves 15 pre-poured concrete panels, each 9 feet wide, 21 feet tall, and 9 inches deep. It is a house that would make the third little pig green with envy - stronger than brick and almost seamless, shutting out the wind and just about any other outside threat, including fire. Panels are poured flat on the ground in two reinforced layers with insulation set in between. A large crane lifts the panels and tilts them in place - thus the term tilt-up construction.

     If Br. Mike and Phillip McKeone, a former student of his, have their way, houses like this, and lots of them, will pop up on the Omaha central city landscape, leading the way to a central city affordable housing renaissance. They have become part of the ongoing battle against urban decline faced by cities everywhere. In that sense, they are indeed in a bunker, but the outline of a new house is clearly defined.

     "This is the prototype," says Br. Wilmot. "It's research and development," adds Phil, president of Daedalus Construction, an Omaha company specializing in concrete construction. "Once we get the wrinkles ironed out, we can figure out a way to build them quicker and cheaper. Who knows where it will go after that?"

     Their vision has a simple plan at its roots. Build one house and recoup their expenses. Build another, then another, and another. Maybe get HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) involved. Think grand, work hard, and pray for success. Even as they work on the first unit, they take notes on how to improve the next one. For example, they might attach the garage so that a poured concrete roof doubles as a patio/deck.

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The construction team (right) of Br. Mike Wilmot, SJ (left), Roger Buck (center) and Br. Jerry Peltz, SJ is hoping they can bring their experimental house in for under $100,000. As the photos below show, they work well together at turning plans into reality.

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     Br. Mike and Phil go back more than 30 years. "Brother was employed at Creighton Prep when I was there causing a lot of trouble. And I did cause them a lot of trouble. He was in a position of authority when I was bucking authority. They probably never should have let me get out of that school," says Phil, his words fading into laughter.
     After attending Creighton University, Phil went into business and only occasionally did his path cross Br. Mike's, most recently around a series of construction projects. His company did some work at Prep, built a recent addition to the Jesuit Middle School of Omaha, and also a much smaller one at Mulumba House, a Jesuit residence near the middle school.




     The success of those projects got Br. Mike wondering if tilt-up construction might be adapted to produce affordable housing. They agreed to experiment with one house on a lot Phil owns near Daedalus' main office.
     "Concrete is as old as the Romans and very versatile. You can make it look like fancy marble, pour it into tunnels, make skyscrapers. I always liked it," Phil says. "We don't know how practical it is for housing, but it is easy to manufacture and readily made. And it doesn't burn." That is a feature they hope will help reduce insurance costs.

     "If there's a fire, we clean out the shell and replace everything else, but the basic structure will still be there," Br. Mike says. The walls are firm, energy efficient, and quiet. When a strong wind blows outside a tilt-up wall, inside the house is quieter than a Rolls Royce on a new highway.
     Their intent, however, is not toward luxury. They want to bring a durable, no-frills, 2,600 square-foot house onto the market for under $100,000. No public money is involved. Phil is willing to front financing and materials and "spin that 100 [thousand] just as many times and as hard as we can to see what happens. It's kind of like bread on the water."

Br. Mike oversees construction and keeps the project on as fast a track as possible. They're hoping to complete the first house before summer, and they already have an interested buyer.
     Their optimism soars on days when, for instance, bankers show interest in financing mortgages. Their dream takes flight when they think of building on an open area of cleared city lots, because one of the planning issues is positioning a crane to raise sections of wall.

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The first of what Br. Mike Wilmot, SJ (above) hopes will be many new, affordable tilt-up construction homes nears completion in Omaha earlier this spring.

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     "We may make mistakes along the way, but we won't make the same mistake twice and we'll learn from everything we do," Phil says. Precision is important because every detail is carved in concrete. Every window must be the right size and in the right place. Every outlet hole along the interior walls must be preformed in exact position, along with passages for the wiring. "Wiring and plumbing are both preset, with everything running up and down, rather than horizontal" Br. Mike says. When Thomas Edison experimented with tilt-up construction he didn't have to worry about as many details. Outlets weren't as important, because he hadn't yet invented the electric light bulb. He didn't have giant cranes to hoist the forms either, so devising a new way to illuminate America probably was less daunting a challenge than lifting a concrete wall.
     Unlike Edison, Phil and Br. Mike have a crane and aren't looking to invent anything new. However, they wouldn't mind reinventing a way to make good housing affordable to more people, raising with every section of wall a little hope for the classic American dream of home ownership.

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