photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Peaslee Tech CEO Kevin Kelley supervises as a forklift eases the "Rapid Room," a prototype emergency shelter built using garage doors, off of a trailer on Wednesday, June 7, 2023.

On Wednesday morning, a group of officials with Amarr, a Lawrence garage door manufacturer, milled around in a parking lot at their facility at East Hills Business Park.

But they weren’t waiting on a ride. Instead, they were waiting for a different kind of vehicle — in this case, a forklift — to haul the prototype version of a new emergency shelter concept into an empty parking space.

Peaslee Tech has partnered with Amarr and P1 Group, a mechanical contractor, to put together what Peaslee Tech CEO Kevin Kelley is calling a “Rapid Room,” a 64-square-foot structure that can be assembled and disassembled quickly — and which happens to be made using garage doors manufactured at Amarr.

The idea developed in Peaslee Tech’s business ignitor and prototyping center, Kelley said, and work on the prototype has been ongoing for the past six months. It was inspired, specifically, by the City of Lawrence’s $1.84 million move to install a Pallet Shelter Village comprising prefabricated 64-square-foot cabins and other support structures along North Michigan Street.

“That’s what prompted us to think ‘Could we do something locally?'” Kelley told the Journal-World Wednesday morning. “Because I really don’t think that whatever the city’s doing now will be the end of the need in our area.”

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Peaslee Tech CEO Kevin Kelley pitches the prototype version of the “Rapid Room” emergency shelter to officials with garage door manufacturer Amarr.

The prototype came together “surprisingly well,” Kelley said, and he thinks one of these shelters could be pieced together in the space of an hour with a bit of practice and possibly with the help of an instructional video.

Kelley didn’t have details regarding the cost for producing a shelter, but he expected to have that figure available soon.

But supplementing the city’s supply of emergency housing isn’t the only way a “Rapid Room” could be used, Kelley said. For an additional example, they could be used as camping cabins. Kelley said the shelter also happens to have a high “R-value,” which means it holds heat and cold especially well. That means it’s also adaptable to extreme weather conditions.

“Because it’s so strong, you can also use it for like in-plant offices, or out on job site offices, because they can withstand the weather,” Kelley said. “It has many applications.”

The shelter unveiled Wednesday is just a proof of concept, though. Kelley said the next steps would be to determine how the prototype may need to be modified from its first version and to outfit the structure with elements like beds and HVAC equipment.

And from there, Kelley said, commercialization is the goal. In part, that’s why Kelley brought the shelter to Amarr this week — to pitch the concept. The plan is for Lawrence city commissioners to also get a chance to view the prototype next week.

“We’ll look for a partner to commercialize this with Amarr and P1, and then once the project’s done (Peaslee Tech) kind of backs out of it,” Kelley said. “We’re talking to a few potential companies that work with emergency management that might be potential partners for this.”