Getting Out of the Office to Tour Cathedral Square

I'm little behind on this, yet on April 22 I was given a tour of the Cathedral Square project on 10/11th and J Streets in Sacramento. When this project started, I was pretty excited. That stretch of J Street is a bit dodgy (to put it very politely) and I like how the steeples  Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament punctuate the Sacramento skyline. In a chance encounter with Neal Cordeiro, the "Cor" in DesCor Builders, the general contractor on the project, I subtly mentioned "I would love to tour your project with the tower crane" and Neal said, "set up a tour with Jeff and let me know and I'll come along." Jeff, as in Jeffry Meier, is an alum of Sac State's Construction Management program and a former student. Now I'm all in. We invited Jeff's dad, Henry to tag along. I have worked for and with Henry over the years and he's been a great mentor since I joined Sac State in 2009. I am a big fan of DesCor's work having been involved with a dining hall they built on the St. Francis High School campus. And I always like walking jobsites with former students; the best part of being a teacher is seeing former students slaying it in the professional world. This site visit scratched a lot of itches for me. Bonus points for there being a tower crane involved.

The building developer is Anthem and its a six story building with one level of subterranean parking, parking and retail on the concrete podium first floor and five floors of timber residential with a rooftop bar. Below are the pictures from the site walk and check out the bundled 2x6 framing!

The view from J Street. This will be an architectural gem that replaces unsalvageable blight.

First floor retail area looking towards the corner of 11th and J Streets

Timberrrrrrrr! With the escalating cost of dimensional lumber, I can't even wrap my mind around the cost of this building. We did discuss how it is less expensive to quadruple-up 2x6 boards than buy 8x6s. Even I could hang a picture securely in this unit when it's complete.

Great views of the skyline with the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on the background. The perfect place to have a cocktail.

I'm still burning off the sushi extravaganza lunch that followed the site walk. Thanks for the tour Jeff and Neal!