Pittsburgh Realtor® Develops and Lists Three-Story Container Home

Earlier this year, Rebekah Siegel and her partner finished developing a home you can’t miss: a three-story-tall house made of storage containers, dubbed the “Blue Pearl” for its eye-catching hue and spot on Pearl Street. 

“It’s a concept my partner and I came up with several years ago,” Siegel, a member of the Realtors® Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh, shares. “We wanted to add something different to the Pittsburgh market and create a stamp of sorts.” 

She noted that while container homes have become more popular in other areas of the country, particularly the Southwest, she hadn’t seen any in her own area. 

The home was constructed from six 8 foot by 40 foot one-trip containers, meaning they had never been used before. It features four bedrooms and two and a half baths, as well as a spacious rooftop deck perfect for entertaining and enjoying the view. 

“It was surprisingly similar to any regular stick build,” Siegel says of the home’s development, sharing that for her location, the permits, inspections, guidelines and other criteria weren’t unique. “It’s not as different as one might think, from a building perspective.” 

“One caution would be making sure you have a site that is conducive to setting the containers,” she warns. Because of how tight the site was for this home, it took longer and was more challenging to maneuver and orchestrate the containers into their places. Still, she added that the location in Bloomfield made it a unique project, and it was all worth it. 

“As the proud developer of Pittsburgh’s first shipping container home, the Blue Pearl, I’ve enjoyed the unique opportunity to create a lasting impression on the real estate market in our city. This novel project has added a product to the housing market, which breaks ground for future similar homes and developments, both locally and beyond. It’s been a pleasure working with our architects, engineers and builder – all local – to erect this special home, which is just as amazing on the interior as it is on the exterior!”