This year, a panel of 13 judges, representing architects, builders and associations, chose 51 winning projects among the more than 135 submissions for the Best of California 2010 program. The Orange County Water District Advanced Water Quality Laboratory in Fountain Valley was the Overall Top Project in Southern California. Related Links: Northern California Winners Southern California Winners The jury awarded points to construction submissions based on a number of criteria, including overcoming challenges and teamwork, safety, innovation and contribution to the industry/community, construction quality and craftsmanship, and function and aesthetic/quality of the design. This year’s lineup of winning projects are

Submitted by Carrier Johnson + CULTUREComposed primarily of glass and metal, the south-wing addition to the $51-million Cal State Dominguez Hills Leo F. Cain Education Center is a five-story, state-of-the-art library facility whose monumental scale is attenuated by a simple yet elegant design inspired by transparency and luminosity – traditional metaphors for learning, inspiration and progress. The new 140,000-sq-ft addition provides the much-needed space to house the educational and cultural resources for the growing campus and surrounding community, including access to the university’s entire collection of books and research materials (currently at over half a million volumes), comfortable study areas,

Submitted by Bomel Construction This $20-million parking structure with an architectural cast-in-place staircase is the second design-build parking structure project the Bomel/IPD team has successfully completed on the campus in the last five years. Some of the major challenges of the project included the relocation of Folino Drive, which is a major traffic artery through the campus, to wrap around the south and east sides of the structure in order to mitigate congestion during construction. LED lighting was also utilized for reduced energy usage and the structure was designed with the intent of installing photovoltaic panels on the roof deck

Submitted by Swinerton Builders Building 24 is an 8,800-sq-ft single-story wood- and steel-framed building with a 1,700-sq-ft mezzanine located at the Chevron Richmond Technology Center in Richmond. It was originally built in the early 1980s as a lab facility and was converted into office and warehouse space in the 1990s. In 2008, Chevron identified the need for an Operations Control Center (OCC) at the RTC to support complex research units across the campus. Building 24 houses the OCC along with office space, training and conference facilities, a server room and break room for 24-7 operation. Many challenges were encountered during

Submitted by Cahill Contractors The $12.1-million, 35,000-sq-ft project consisted of partial demolition, renovation and expansion of a 1968 school building to create an architecturally inspiring modern place of worship, gathering and education for members of the Jewish faith in Tiburon, southern Marin County. While the existing portions of the building are wood framed with structural arched glulam beams exposed in the new design within the core Sanctuary, the new Multi-Purpose Room wing is predominantly steel framed. Programmed space includes administrative offices, classrooms, preschool, sanctuary, divisible multi-purpose room, kosher catering kitchens, back of house areas. The project also includes new parking

Submitted by Fisher Development The $1.05-million Crissy Field Center, an award-winning environmental education center located in San Francisco’s Presidio National Park, which serves nearly 20,000 youth annually, needed to relocate due to one of the city’s largest public works projects: the rebuilding of the Golden Gate Bridge approach (Doyle Drive). The Crissy Field Center staff had to work quickly to find a new location for its classrooms, labs, cafe and visitor amenities within six months. Their solution turned out to be a golden “green” opportunity. One of the nation’s greenest park-based buildings promises to be an outstanding model of sustainability.

Submitted by DPR Construction Transforming a typical 24,000-sq-ft, suburban multi-tenant office building into a Net Zero facility is a real possibility, as proven by the team on DPR Construction’s new San Diego office project. With 11 conference rooms, including a large training area, a 16-person video conference room and a space dedicated to building information modeling technology, the $6.25-million building is targeting LEED-NC platinum certification by incorporating natural ventilation, daylighting, efficient HVAC and lighting systems and renewable energy. During the initial programming stages, the design team and DPR hosted several strategic planning sessions to generate the project criteria and create

Submitted by O.C. Jones & Sons This project involved reconfiguring the existing California State University, East Bay’s football stadium field in Hayward into an NCAA-level soccer field. The facility is also the new home field of the local Women’s Professional Soccer Team, the FC Gold Pride. In addition to reconfiguration of the athletic field, the running track was reconstructed, new drainage systems installed and access improvements made. The project was turn-key and handed over in time and under budget for opening day ceremonies for the FC Gold Pride. The project schedule required demolition and excavation of the existing stadium field

Submitted by AECOM The Eastside Extension is a 6-mi-long addition to the Los Angeles-to-Pasadena Metro Gold Line. The light rail line runs from downtown’s Union Station to East Los Angeles. The project features eight new stations (two underground) and twin 1.8-mi-long tunnels under Boyle Heights, a heavily populated section of Los Angeles. In addition to bringing new transit options to a traditionally under-served community, the project meticulously integrated community-inspired art into the station designs. Although this was LACMTA’s first design-build project, it was hugely successful, opening on schedule, on budget, and with no lost time injuries suffered after more than

Submitted by W.L. Butler Construction The project involved the demolition of the existing spray booths at the AC Transit Authority Central Maintenance Facility in Oakland and the construction of a new paint booth with an underground exhaust structure. The new spray booth was designed for re-painting of articulated buses for the Transit District. The spray booth was designed with down-draft air flow and heated air replacement system. The booth will be used with EPA and local air pollution control authority water borne paints, making it environmentally state-of-the-art. Construction highlights included an exhaust pit in the floor, directly fume laden air