ASCE Los Angeles Section

2000 San Gabriel Avenue
Long Beach, CA 90810

Cabrillo Gateway is a 4-story residential development located within the Century Villages at Cabrillo Campus in Long Beach California. The project consists of 80 residential units for small families, a grand lawn, which also serves as a detention basin, an outdoor stage, and an on-site clinic.

This project is located within the Century Villages at Cabrillo Campus. The campus is a former 27-acre US Naval housing site which now serves as emergency, temporary, and permanent housing for those in need. Established in 1997 when the US Department of Defense conveyed the land under the McKinney Act for the benefit of the homeless, the campus provides housing on any given night to over 1,000 persons. Residents include veteran and non-veteran individuals, families, youth and children.  The Cabrillo Gateway development will add capacity to the campus, which in addition to providing vital housing services to the community in need, also provide valuable social services. This project had a significant number of challenges including poor soils, phasing constraints, storm water constraints, scheduling challenges, and many unknown elements that were discovered in the field.

This project had many challenges throughout its development. During demolition the former naval building required haz-mat remediation and during this phase a number of unknown utilities were discovered. This impacted the schedule as well as the design. One of the biggest challenges for the project were the poor soil conditions. This required soil improvements (stone columns) for the project and also did not allow for any storm water infiltration. In addition, the poor soil conditions made all underground installations very difficult. The water table ranged from 3-5 ft below ground. Another project challenge was storm water mitigation. Since infiltration was not an option we were able to use the grand lawn as a detention basin, along with a pump station. The design and construction team worked very well together to overcome many challenges and it resulted in a great project which will serve a great cause - to help those in need.

For additional information please check out the CVC website (http://centuryvillages.org/a-view-from-above-cabrillo-gateway/)

The Cabrillo Gateway project team, under the leadership of Mr. Brian D’Andrea and Ms. Linda Mele overcame many challenges to complete the 80-unit multi-story residential development located in Long Beach California.

I would like to recognize the hard and diligent work by the Cabrillo Gateway project team in delivering a amazing building, surrounded by beautiful amenities, that will serve the local Long Beach community in need. The project overcame many technical challenges to provide 80 families with a much needed home. This was the latest development within the Century Villages at Cabrillo Campus whose purpose is to battle homelessness.

I probably didn’t give this project justice so if there are any clarifying questions please feel free to email me or give me a call.  Thank you for your consideration.