Watsonville tiny homes project nears completion to aid homeless community
The 19-story building will feature 278 apartments
he construction of 32 tiny homes in Watsonville is nearing completion, offering transitional housing and services for those living at or near the Pajaro River.
Maria Elena De La Garza, with Community Action Board Santa Cruz County, said, “They’ve endured flooding, they’ve endured displacement. They’ve endured sweeps. Right. And this opportunity is hopeful. Right?”
The tiny village will provide a space that is beautiful and inspiring, connecting residents to jobs, food, and health care.
“A space that’s beautiful, a space that is inspiring and can offer hope, that can offer resources and connect people to jobs and to food and to health care, then we’ve done something right. And we believe that that’s what this is going to offer,” De La Garza said.
Residents will have access to showers, a laundry room, and a communal dining area. Roxanne emphasized the village’s focus on the needs of its clients.
“Every single thing that we thought about is with the actual clients in mind. So there will be a pet run. People will be able to have their pets inside of their units. You don’t have to leave your partner because you there’s units for you to have a partner in there,” Roxanne Wilson with the Monterey County Homeless Services said.
The project highlights a community-wide partnership between Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, involving nonprofits, the public sector, and the faith-based community, all working towards the goal of supporting the unhoused.
Dan Hoffman, pastor with Westview Presbyterian Church, said, “And that’s what this hope is. It’s a chance for people that are like you and me. They got on hard times to get back to their lives again and be cared for.”
The tiny village is expected to open its doors by this November.
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ENR West Announces 2025 Excellence in Safety, Sustainability Winners for California
ENR West is pleased to announce the winners for the 2025 Regional Best Projects Excellence in Safety and Excellence in Sustainability competitions in the Northern California and Southern California subregions.
An independent group of AEC experts reviewed 63 projects from across California, Nevada and Hawaii and selected four Best Projects and seven Awards of Merit. The Northern California subregion includes northern Nevada and Hawaii while the Southern California subregion includes southern Nevada.
ENR California’s 2025 Regional Excellence in Sustainability Winners
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Excellence in Sustainability
UCSF Health Peninsula Outpatient Center, Burlingame, CA.
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Swinerton Celebrates ENR West 2025 Regional Best Projects Awards
ENR West is pleased to announce the winners for the 2025 Regional Best Projects competition in the Northern California and Southern California subregions!
After several weeks of hard work, an independent group of AEC experts reviewed 145 projects from across California, Nevada and Hawaii and selected 30 Best Projects and 36 Awards of Merit. The Northern California subregion includes northern Nevada and Hawaii while the Southern California subregion includes southern Nevada.
An Outstanding Collection of Achievements
Swinerton’s projects were highlighted among the best, securing awards in both the Best Healtchare and Best Renovation/Restoration categories. Here is a look at the honors we received:
Best Healthcare: UCSF Health Peninsula Outpatient Center, Burlingame, CA
Best Government/Public Building: Orange County Sanitation District Headquarters, Fountain Valley, CA
Best Interior/Tenant Improvement: A&J El Monte Training Facility Tenant Improvement, El Monte, CA
Best Office/Retail/Mixed-Use: 8980 Villa La Jolla Drive, San Diego, CA
Best Renovation/Restoration: Hotel Del Coronado Victorian Building Renovation, Coronado, CA
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Supportive Housing Opens at 1367 University Avenue, Berkeley
Less than two years after the official groundbreaking, a new supportive housing complex has opened at?1367 University Avenue?in?Berkeley,?Alameda County. The project is located along University Avenue, just two blocks from the North Berkeley BART Station.?Panoramic Interests?and Lindgren are responsible for the project as co-developers.
The four-story structure is expected to accept its first residents soon, occupying the 39 private studios, with access to a community kitchen. Berkeley-based non-profit Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency will operate the building. The team has promised to provide staff on-site at all times who can help with case management, job navigation, mental health and addiction recovery, and applying for medical care benefits.
The engineering team included Rockridge Geotechnical, Dolmen Consulting Engineers, Steenhof Building, IMEG, and Kister Savio & Rei.?Hawk Development?was the project’s general contractor, and Lindgren, a subsidiary of?Swinerton, is a co-developer with Panoramic.
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Mass timber delivers practical and scalable solutions for institutions integrating sustainability and innovation.
Swinerton Builders (Swinerton), California’s premier general contractor, and its mass timber partner Timberlab, are proud to announce the completion of the new University Services Building at California State University, Chico (Chico State)—a first for the California University System and a key milestone in Swinerton’s expanding portfolio of sustainable higher education infrastructure in California.
Delivered through a design-build partnership with Dreyfuss + Blackford Architecture, the $14.5 million, 22,132-square-foot, two-story facility consolidates campus operations into a single, efficient, and forward-looking structure. Mass timber elements—orchestrated by Timberlab—serve as both a sustainable and aesthetic choice, enhancing the workspace with biophilic warmth while significantly reducing embodied carbon.
This project illustrates Swinerton’s deep expertise in design-build delivery, a method that fosters early collaboration, improves cost and schedule certainty, and empowers teams to make informed, valuedriven decisions from day one. Swinerton worked closely with Dreyfuss + Blackford, Buehler Engineering, and Chico State to establish clear performance goals and develop a flexible, efficient design that met Chico State’s evolving operational needs—all while navigating complex site constraints and a tight campus footprint.
“As a graduate of Chico State, it’s incredibly meaningful to contribute to a project that supports the dayto-
day functions of this campus and enhances the well-being of its staff,” says Matthew Beyer, Swinerton Project Executive. “This building is a testament to what can happen when innovation, collaboration, sustainability, and community pride come together.”
The project was completed on time and on budget despite material lead time challenges and seasonal weather conditions. The prefabrication of structural timber components played a critical role in accelerating the schedule and minimizing disruption to ongoing campus activities.
“Chico State’s new University Services Building demonstrates how mass timber isn’t just for showpieces—it’s a practical, scalable solution for institutional spaces that care about performance, wellness, and long-term value,” says Lisa Podesto, Swinerton Director of Preconstruction – Mass Timber.
The University Services Building reflects Chico State’s and the CSU system’s growing commitment to building responsibly in the face of a changing climate. With clean lines, abundant daylight, and regionally sourced materials, the facility is expected to serve as a model for future sustainable development across campus.
This project follows the momentum of Swinerton’s other education-sector work, including the $132 million in mass timber projects currently underway at Cal Poly Humboldt and the mass timber LEED? Gold Advanced Technology and Education Park (ATEP) project for South Orange County Community College District in Tustin, CA, completed last year. Together, these efforts underscore a shared vision across institutions to deliver carbon smart, community-centered buildings for the next generation of learners.
Swinerton continues to support the future of construction in the region by actively engaging with the Chico State Construction Management program, offering project tours, internships, and mentorship to students, many of whom have contributed to recent campus projects.
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Revitalizing Sunnydale
Swinerton recently delivered a new mass timber community center for the Sunnydale neighborhood of San Francisco. The project marks a milestone in the community redevelopment master plan—and has made a positive impact in the lives of the local workforce.
In southeastern San Francisco, a multi-phase redevelopment project is reshaping the future of a public housing community. Sunnydale HOPE SF is a long-term plan to redevelop and revitalize the dynamic and diverse community of Sunnydale, which over 1,700 residents call home.
Once a thriving military housing neighborhood, decades of disinvestment have left the barracks-style, WWII-era apartment buildings in disrepair. A Development Agreement between the master developer, Sunnydale Development Co., LLC, the City of San Francisco, and the San Francisco Housing Authority—who owns the site—will rehabilitate the community with a mix of housing types for various income levels, safe and hospitable community-focused spaces, and quality-of-life amenities that Sunnydale residents have lacked.
A key milestone in this master plan is the Sunnydale Community Center, a recently completed collaboration between Swinerton and mass timber affiliate Timberlab. Located at the heart of the redeveloped neighborhood, the 30,000-square-foot mass timber building features vital community spaces such as a study areas and multi-purpose rooms. Combined with the adjacent Herz Recreation Center, the project creates a new campus hub that supports community connection. The center will also include new facilities for the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco and Wu Yee Children’s Services who will operate youth, family support, and early childhood education services out of this center, greatly expanding the capacity of both organizations to provide top-tier childcare and programming for nearly 80 neighborhood youth.
Shaping the Future with Mass Timber Construction
While value engineering was provided throughout preconstruction of the project, the cornerstone of the project team’s efforts was the mass timber structural system. Swinerton collaborated with the design team and the owner to evaluate a traditional steel structure compared to the engineered wood material, and determined that a switch to mass timber was cost-neutral. Timber structures are lighter, reducing the foundations which shortened the construction schedule. As an inherently biophilic and aesthetic building material, mass timber can be exposed for wellness benefits, and to reduce the quantity of required finishes.
The final structural design for the Sunnydale Community Center leverages glulam posts and beams, with CLT floor panels and a sloping CLT roof. The design showcases mass timber brace frames in key locations with framed, glazed openings, allowing for more access to daylight and views. The mass timber beams and girders are also exposed and visible where the programming calls for longer spans, demonstrating timber’s structural capabilities and also adding a natural wood architectural element to the space.
The timber was sourced from the Pacific Northwest and fabricated by Timberlab. With the entire Hope SF Sunnydale masterplan conditionally approved at the LEED Gold? level, the mass timber Sunnydale Community Center marks a key milestone on Sunnydale’s path to achieve its goal of LEED for Neighborhood Development. Mass timber has the ability to sequester carbon dioxide (CO2), and on average, produces up to 50% fewer CO2 emissions than concrete and steel buildings.
Building Up the Communities We Build In
Not only does the community center bring transformative community spaces to the Sunnydale neighborhood, but the project itself significantly impacted the local workforce positively. As a company, Swinerton strives to award 20% of its subcontracting volume to small, local, and diverse business enterprises. The Sunnydale Community Center project achieved a notable 33% participation, with 17 small and diverse business enterprises contracted. Of these, seven were hyperlocal business enterprises.
Additionally, through the project’s Sunnydale Resident Hiring Program, 12 local residents were hired onto the project and sponsored for trade unions and apprenticeships.
Swinerton and Timberlab are proud to have collaborated with the City of San Francisco and other partners on the pivotal Sunnydale Community Center project. The new mass timber hub provides much-needed community spaces and amenities to local residents, and the project itself contributed opportunities for the local economy and workforce. This underscores Swinerton’s goal to be a responsible community partner, creating enduring opportunities ourselves, our trade partners, and our communities.
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Safety Story: Raul Gomez
In honor of Safety Week, we sat down with Swinerton employees to find out what safety means to them.
Raul Gomez, Field Operations Manager, discussed his career progression from a Senior Superintendent in 2015 to his current role, highlighting his 25 years of experience in the industry. He emphasized the importance of safety, noting his past injuries and the industry’s advancements.
Safety Q&A
Share your experience with Swinerton, how you started, and where you are now:
I started with Swinerton in 2015 as a Senior Superintendent and am now a Field Operations Manager. I worked in Silicon Valley before I came to Swinerton, so coming back to be Field Operations Manager for Silicon Valley is like a homecoming for me. I’ve been in the industry for 25 years and started in the field working on ground-up buildings and precast concrete structures like garage skins. I was injured a handful of times in my younger years because, unfortunately, safety wasn’t as emphasized as it is now. I’ve seen the progression of safety getting better throughout my 25 years in the industry. I’m really grateful that the industry is moving in that direction.
How do you foster open communication within your teams to promote a stronger safety culture?
I think it comes down to what our?core values?are and really letting our core values drive those conversations with the teams. It could be anyone from my safety manager, Matt Dolan, my General Superintendent, Scott Kent, and then all the Superintendents and Foremen that work in Division 85 really taking the pulse of where we’re at all those levels. What are we doing? What can we do different? I’m really big about getting back to basics. I make observations in the field that I see that we can do better. It always comes down to the most basic things, e.g. the proper PPE use, what is our minimum for PPE on the projects, and are we following it? Are the project teams so caught up in the moment of getting the project done that maybe they’re not seeing the things on the periphery? When I see it, I try to have those conversations with Matt, take the pulse, talk to the project Superintendent, and really get to the root cause. And ensure we’re growing together. That is really at the core of it for me.
How does Swinerton’s approach to both mental and physical well-being contribute to a safer work environment?
As managers, the environment is something that we shape and create. As a young Superintendent the quality of life wasn’t as prevalent. It wasn’t really talked about. And I know what that can do to someone running a complex, stressful project and working the hours that a Superintendent has to work as part of their duties. I think flipping the script on it and really understanding that our people in the field to have lives outside of work is important. They have commitments to family. So how can we help lighten that load? I say to my Superintendents – if there’s a crane pick or something coming up on a weekend and you guys have been working a six-to-seven-day week and need a weekend off – call on me, call on Scott the General Superintendent. We have no problem coming and watching that crane pick on a Saturday, so that they can have that much needed time off and get that mental reset to come back to work.?
For me, the most important aspect of safety is pre-planning. Also, I’d say our morning daily huddle and stretch and flex. That is really key because you’re able to talk amongst the project teams, including our trade partners, and identify what the plan is for the day – allowing everyone on that project site to hear what what’s going on at any given day. For example, we are going to be shutting down a certain sector of the project because there’s going to be crane operation. That triggers a lot of conversations. It also puts folks on notice to avoid this area. I think that conversation in the morning just is so critical to safety and getting everyone on the same page. Then when you roll it into the stretch and flex, it’s a great opportunity to get everybody loosened up in the morning, talking about the plan of the day. It creates synergy for our projects and the culture we need for safety.
How do you recognize and show appreciation for team members who demonstrate safety excellence?
Whether it’s a Superintendent or Craft, my heart’s always been in the field. When I see our team members and walk our jobs, I walk away with so much just admiration for the things that they do every day. Our Superintendents and Craft employees are just amazing. I am lucky that my Division Manager is very supportive of the recognition we advocate for the Craft folks. Our Superintendents are doing excellent work and living up to our?core values. I have no hesitation in knocking on her door and saying, “I want to talk to you about something I’m seeing positive in the field.” We always hear about the negatives, but, when we have people who are impacting the business positively, I always make time to talk to them. I also regularly communicate to my Superintendents the need for us to recognize those folks in the field that are contributing to our success.
There’s a program called the?Craft Performance Awards (CPA). Those are monetary awards, and you can nominate a project team or a Craft individual. If someone in drywall is doing great job, or someone in concrete is excelling at pre-planning and safety, you can nominate them. I try to send an email out to my Superintendents at least every quarter to remind them. Just look for those opportunities to show our gratitude for their contributions.
Do you have any final thoughts or any favorite safety memories??
I look back on all the times when I was injured as a young laborer. There are so many checks, and there is so much progress that has been made. Every year it seems like we’re improving. At Swinerton, we really practice what we preach. And I think I just feel so fortunate to be in this era of our industry. We still see injuries, but I feel like we’re doing a lot of work to prevent it.
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San Jose breaks ground on new interim housing site along Guadalupe River
Swinerton is proud to partner with the City of San Jose, Valley Water, and DignityMoves on a transformative new interim housing site along the Guadalupe River. This 136-bed tiny home community, located at 5200 Cherry Avenue, is crucial in the city’s commitment to expanding shelter capacity and addressing the homelessness crisis. By providing dignified, secure housing, this project supports individuals in need and contributes to cleaner waterways and a healthier community. Swinerton is honored to lead the construction efforts, ensuring the site is built efficiently and to the highest quality standards.
This initiative is part of a broader strategy to nearly triple San Jose’s emergency housing capacity within the next 18 months. The Cherry Avenue project stands out for its collaborative approach, bringing together government agencies, nonprofits, and philanthropic support to create meaningful change. Swinerton is a trusted construction partner dedicated to delivering solutions that strengthen communities and improve lives.
We look forward to completing this vital project and continuing our work to build a brighter, more sustainable future for San Jose.
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As a community contractor with national reach, Swinerton understands the unique demands of building some of our society’s most impactful and widely used infrastructure, including healthcare and life sciences facilities, housing for our vulnerable populations, and transportation hubs. Through vertical leadership and resources, we deliver the consistency and efficiency these market sectors require.
From our earliest days, Swinerton has lent our flexibility to a diverse array of product types and clients: from rebuilding hotels and commercial districts after natural disasters, to our expansion into complex industrial projects in the 20th century, to solidifying our place as a modern-day industry leader in sustainable mass timber construction.
Today, Swinerton is proud to provide premier commercial construction services to nearly 20 market sectors. Several of these markets—including Healthcare, Life Sciences, Affordable Housing, Aviation, and Parking Structures—comprise a large portion of our portfolio in multiple regions nationwide, necessitating centralized resources. These sectors are also essential to our daily lives, serving our society’s needs for health, shelter, and transportation.
To address the unique demands of these markets, Swinerton has centralized its resources and appointed National Market Leads to guide the overall focus and approach, enhance the consistency of project delivery from region to region, and reduce onboarding time for project teams by equipping them with the right training, resources, and processes to deliver on specialized market-specific needs.
To address the unique demands of these markets, Swinerton has centralized its resources and appointed National Market Leads to guide the overall focus and approach, enhance the consistency of project delivery from region to region, and reduce onboarding time for project teams by equipping them with the right training, resources, and processes to deliver on specialized market-specific needs.
“A national approach enables effective management, ensuring that we allocate resources where they are needed most,” says Chris Morris, leader of Swinerton’s National Healthcare market. “Recognizing that each division has its unique strengths and challenges, our team provides tailored support to address these specific needs. Whether it involves delivering in-depth healthcare market research, assisting with project management, or offering targeted training and development, we reduce the learning curve for local divisions and ensure that their teams are equipped with the necessary tools and resources to thrive.”
While projects across the country will always have regional considerations, such as different code requirements and jurisdictional agencies, many markets also have specific inherent industry needs that must always be considered no matter the project size, location, or complexity. For example, research-focused clients often operate in regulated, complex industries and require partners who understand the critical nature of their work, says Swinerton’s National Life Sciences Director, Marcella Ayala.
“From an operational perspective, Swinerton provides a solid backbone through centralized resources, including specialized MEP expertise and technical support, quality assurance, and safety protocols. These resources ensure that no matter where our Life Sciences clients’ projects are located, they receive the same high level of service and technical excellence that their industry demands,” Marcella adds.
As clients seek to answer what is next for their growth—whether rapidly expanding their own operations, or advancing their industry with new innovations—having a national, enterprise construction firm with the capabilities to answer a diverse set of needs is critical.
In addition to national quality and safety programs and centralized MEP expertise, Swinerton is capable of self-performing some of the most critical trades that drive a project, including concrete and drywall. In addition, the firm brings extensive mass timber expertise alongside the partnership of its mass timber affiliate, Timberlab. These capabilities can help drive cost and schedule efficiencies for many market sectors, but have proven especially valuable for affordable housing, where budget, community engagement, and sustainability are at the heart of nearly every project.
“Self-perform plays a huge role in this work,” says Patrick Otellini, Swinerton’s National Affordable Housing Director. “We have struck a delicate balance between complying with the Local and Small Business Enterprise goals for these projects, while identifying solid scopes of work for our self-perform group to help drive down cost and create schedule efficiencies. We also interface a lot with Timberlab, since many of these clients are looking at ways to build more sustainably.”
Recently, a Seattle-based architect who helped author changes to the 2021 International Building Codes (IBC) collaborated with Swinerton and Timberlab to build Seattle’s first mass timber mid-rise workforce housing structure under the new codes. The partnership testifies to how Swinerton’s integrated offerings are not only advancing the future of certain market sectors, but the construction industry as a whole.
Swinerton’s ability to self-perform work is also critically tied to the success of one of its largest national platforms: parking structures. Rather than a market in and of itself, Director of Parking Structures Jeff Goodermote refers to the structures he constructs as a specific “product” that intersects with and supports every other market that Swinerton works in.
“The parking structures sector is a little different from other market sectors, which may include different product types all under one umbrella. For example, aviation has landside and airside operations. Healthcare has acute and non-acute facilities. Compared to those markets, parking is a truly specialized, niche field,” Jeff says.
The group’s complete expertise in parking structure products can be largely attributed to the success of Swinerton’s self-perform concrete group, he adds.
“We have invested in a substantial amount of self-owned concrete formwork that is specific to concrete parking structures. Leveraging our design-build or progressive design-build expertise, we can design a parking structure around our specific formwork, which often results in a considerably lower price than market rate,” Jeff continues. “We have even shipped our formwork over the Pacific Ocean to deliver concrete projects in Hawaii. In addition to our extensive collaboration with our self-perform concrete teams, we are beginning to engage our drywall teams to self-perform some of the fa?ade treatments of our parking structures to round-off our thorough, end-to-end expertise in this product type.”
Over the past decade, the National Parking Structures group has delivered on a number of aviation parking structures throughout California and Colorado, not only bolstering its own portfolio but also the project experience of the National Aviation group. This has been a catalyst for success in other divisions, such as Texas and the Southeast. Additionally, intergroup collaboration between Swinerton’s national market platforms allows the firm to leverage its focus on enhanced efficiency, knowledge-sharing, and commitment to drive value by bridging often-fragmented scopes of work.
“Airport decision-makers are looking for partners who can be problem-solvers that understand both the complex requirements of airport construction and the unique aspects of the local market. We are thrilled to regularly partner with other Swinerton target markets like National Parking Structures,” says Carrie Shaeffer, National Director of Aviation.
“Clients benefit from a collaborative approach because we can provide innovative parking expertise and capabilities that also align with the specific nuances of sensitive airport environments informed by our National Aviation group,” Jeff adds.
Modern construction is demanding. Through our national market platforms, Swinerton ensures that our regional teams have the skills, resources, and support they need to tackle projects in a wide range of sectors. Furthermore, our coast-to-coast expertise and capabilities provide opportunities for clients seeking consistency and efficiency in their project delivery nationwide.
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Best in Design: Swinerton Projects Earn Top Honors in Global Architecture Competition
Four Swinerton projects received recognition in The Architect’s Newspaper’s 2024 Best of Design Awards. The 12th annual competition, which expanded internationally this year, drew the highest number of submissions in program history.
The winning Swinerton projects include:
? Kaiser Watts – Healthcare Category
? Kresge College Residential Building – Higher Education-Residential Category
? PDX Main Terminal – Aviation Category
? Presidio Tunnel Tops – Landscape Category
These awards showcase Swinerton’s commitment to delivering innovative solutions across diverse market sectors. The recognition reflects the technical expertise and dedication of our project teams in creating spaces that serve their communities.
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