July 19, 2018
RICHMOND, Calif. – The historic headquarters of Alten Construction, a full-service San Francisco Bay Area commercial construction company, recently received a Historic Preservation Award by the Richmond Historic Preservation Commission and the National Park Service for its adaptive reuse of the former National Oil Products factory.
Alten Construction completed the 70-year-old factory in the Marina Bay industrial area in August 2017. Bob Alten, founder and CEO of Alten Construction, partnered with architect Andrew Butt and landscape architect JC Miller Studio to refurbish the building, which was built in 1946 by vitamin manufacturer and also housed a lighting factory.
Highlights of the renovation include refurbished historic steel windows, environmentally responsible landscaping, outdoor deck and courtyard spaces and an employee lounge and tap room. The team preserved and refurbished more than 200 historic steel windows, as well as the structure’s concrete slab floor and exposed wood ceiling. The renovation created 30 private offices, an open office area, conference rooms, kitchen/break room, deck, conference rooms, bid room, restrooms, shower, janitor/storage room and lobby area. The overhead roll-up doors were replaced with a glazed storefront, and an unremarkable loading dock was turned into a scenic outdoor deck fronting both Alten Construction’s office and the company’s conference room.
Located at 1141 Marina Way S., the project also included minor structural work, new roof and stucco, accessibility improvements, energy-efficient electrical and mechanical upgrades, new restrooms and plumbing fixtures.
"We're so pleased with the restoration of this unique wartime-era building, and we are honored to receive this award," said Alten. "Our goal was to preserve and highlight this architectural gem. This project was a labor of love for us, and our team forwards to continuing to serve this community and preserving the historical jewels in this area for many years to come."
The Historic Preservation Awards ceremony will be held May 21 at 5:30 p.m. in the Richmond City Council Chambers to honor this year’s five recipients. The purpose of the awards program is to increase public awareness of Richmond’s heritage by recognizing individuals, organizations, businesses and agencies whose contributions demonstrate outstanding commitment to excellence in historic preservation, local history or promotion of the heritage of the city.
The commercial construction company also recently received an award for its work on the historic Goodman Library in downtown Napa. The library was awarded the Historical Project of the Year award from the American Public Works Association (APWA) Northern California Chapter for its restoration. The City of Napa Public Works Department nominated the Historic Goodman Library Earthquake Repair Project in the Historic Projects less than $5 million category.
