Access to a large talent pool, the possibility of venture capital, and proximity to like-minded individuals makes San Francisco an attractive location for tech-startups. In addition to big-league players such as Google, Facebook, and Apple, there are more than 2,000 startups in San Francisco setting up shop.
Naturally, San Francisco hosts some of the world’s most beautiful workplaces. Google’s Googleplex resembles a playful, inventive campus, while Apple’s future workplace is dubbed ‘The Spaceship’. Another well-known tech giant, Twitter, opted to reinvent an older building, turning a former retail store into a modern “bird’s nest”.
While architects get the credit for these designs, it is the contractors who bring to life their visions from blueprint to structure. Below are the best office contractors in San Francisco, none of whom have any shortage of experience in creating complex, modern workplaces.
James E. Roberts – Obayashi
20 Oak Court, Danville, CA 94526
The San Francisco-based general contracting firm James E. Roberts – Obayashi has over 70 years of experience. Their areas of construction focus include affordable and market-rate rentals, for-sale housing, assisted living, commercial, and mixed-use developments. The firm’s work has appeared in Commercial Building Edge and the San Francisco Gate. The firm attributes their success to a commitment to teamwork and a proactive, solution-oriented approach to all their projects.
Roberts – Obayashi has worked on residential and mixed-use buildings such as The Martin, Duboce Apartments, and L Seven in San Francisco, as well as the Cadence Apartments, Hunters Point Shipyard, 1010 Potrero, 2175 Market Street, 1180 4th Street, and Market Square II Condominiums. The firm also completed high-rise projects such as the Venn on Market and The Avenue San Francisco Care.
In 2015, the firm’s project at 1180 4th Street earned them a citation from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) as one of the best-designed residences of 2015. Roberts – Obayashi also won two Golden Nugget Awards in 2014 for their work on St. Joseph’s Family Apartments and the Venn on Market. In 2012, the firm won six Golden Nugget Awards.
Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company
275 Battery Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, CA 94111
Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company is a full-service general contracting company based in San Francisco. A firm with more than a hundred years of experience, Hathaway has completed projects for a variety of markets, including technological, hospitality, retail, life sciences, tenant improvements, and full-scale construction of high-rise buildings. CEO and president Greg Cosko manage the firm.
The firm worked on the Salesforce Tower, the tallest building in San Francisco, while in partnership with Clark Construction. The tower’s opening appeared in the San Francisco Business Times, and has residential, corporate and retail components. The firm also completed the retail, residential, and corporate complex Santa Clara Square in Santa Clara, the Academy Square Development, and the mixed-use USC Village in Los Angeles. Hathaway Dinwiddie received the ENR Best Project Award for its construction of the Salesforce Tower, the Los Angeles Business Journal Commercial Real Estate Awards, the 2016 ENR California Contractor of the Year, and two International Interior Design Awards in 2016.
Plant Construction
300 Newhall Street, San Francisco, CA, United States
Plant Construction has won an array of recognition for its many projects in different markets since its establishment in 1947. The firm offers full-service general construction management as well as design and build services. With Chris Rivielle as CEO, the firm received recognition for its work on the Contemporary Jewish Museum and 680 Folsom, earning the National Architecture and Engineering Award from the American Institute of Steel Construction, and Silver Award in Building Design + Construction respectively.
The firm will work with the Forest City Realty Trust in building an extensive, mixed-use project in the Southeastern waterfront of San Francisco City. The design will include 17 individual corporate and residential buildings. In addition,Plant Construction renovated the 470,000 square feet, 29-story building on Van Ness Avenue, turning the former office building into 418-unit luxury apartments with parking, roof deck, conference room/business center, a fitness facility, library, and a game room. ENR awarded the building its ‘Project of the Year’ award and Best Project for Residential/Hospitality in 2015. The firm was also earned the Renovation/Rehab of the Year award from the San Francisco Business Times in 2014.
The firm’s work has appeared in Architectural Record, San Francisco Chronicle, ENR California, Forbes, San Francisco Business Times, and SF Gate.
Level 10 Construction
1050 Enterprise Way, Suite 250, Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Level 10 Construction has completed many high-profile projects around the San Francisco Bay Area, with clients such as Facebook, Jay Paul Company, and Stanford University. The firm, started in 2011 by five industry veterans, rapidly gained an excellent reputation and was hailed as the second largest general contractor in Northern California by the Engineering News Record in 2016.
The firm has worked in various market sectors including technology, biotechnology, healthcare, corporate, hospitality, entertainment, residential, and mixed-use. Level 10 Construction worked on 181 Fremont, one of the tallest mixed-use buildings in San Francisco. The building project, which spanned five years and is worth $850 million, includes five stories of retail space, 33 stories of corporate offices, and 16 floors of luxury residences. The project appeared in the San Francisco Business Times, Metropolis Magazine, Silicon Valley Business Journal, Forbes, and Business Insider. The firm also worked on a San Diego-based, 23-story mixed-use building at 333 13th Street. It features commercial space, apartment units, below-ground parking, restaurant, two penthouses, and an open-space corridor.
Engineering News Record named Level 10 as the 2015 Contractor of the Year, and presented them the ENR CA Legacy Award. The Silicon Valley Business Journal named the firm’s work on Moffett Gateway as the Best Green Project. Level 10 also received the Excellence in Safety Award and the President’s Safety Award in 2014. In 2018, ENR included the firm as one of the Top 400 General Contractors in the US, while the Silicon Valley Business Journal ranked them second among the Top 25 GSs in Silicon Valley.
Swinerton
260 Townsend St #1719, San Francisco, CA 94107
Swinerton, based in San Francisco, has worked on multiple, complex projects in Northern and Southern California. Over their years in the industry, the firm has accumulated hundreds of awards, honors, and citations, including the ENR Northwest – 2017 Best Projects and CEA Award for Excellence in Safety. The firm is also 100-percent employee-owned, and thoroughly engaged in safety awareness programs.
Swinerton has teamed up with another San Francisco-based contracting firm, Webcor, to complete a mixed-use project for Oceanwide Holdings: The two-tower Oceanwide Center. The Center is co-designed by Heller Manus Architects and Foster + Poster and will feature 265 residential units, 26,000 square feet of open public space, a large floor for office use, and 169-room Waldorf Astoria Hotel floors. Oceanwide Center is scheduled to open in 2021.
Swinerton also worked on 399 Fremont in San Francisco, a luxury residential building with 452 luxury rental units., below-ground parking, and other amenities, luxury NEMA apartment right across the office building for social media giant Twitter, the 21-story, mixed-use Shift Tower in San Diego, and the remodeled mixed-use Nabisco Lofts in Los Angeles.
Swinerton’s works have appeared in Building Design + Construction, Los Angeles Business Journal, Hawaii Business Magazine, 303 Magazine, Biznow, and Oregon Business. The firm was named as one of the best companies to work for in Oregon, Portland, San Diego, Orange County, and Los Angeles. The firm also won the San Francisco Business Times award for Fastest Growing Private Companies of 2017.
Nibbi Brothers General Contractors
1000 Brannan Street, Ste 102, San Francisco, CA 94103
Nibbi Brothers General Contractors grew from a small carpentry company to one of the largest firms in the Bay Area in its five decades of doing business. The firm’s projects range from affordable housing, retail, and tenant improvement, to luxury housing, museums and educational buildings. Nibbi ranked in the ENR Top 400 Contractors, was given an Achievement Award from the Building Industry Conference Board, and awarded the San Francisco Business Times’ Corporate Philanthropy Award.
Nibbi continually implements accident prevention awareness through staff training and programs. For their commitment, Nibbi has earned six safety awards from the American Society of Concrete Contractors, California Employers Association, and Cal/OSHA.
Nibbi has completed numerous mixed-use building and renovation projects in San Francisco – from condominiums and affordable housing, to senior living apartments and student housing. Nibbi built Vera Haile Sr Housing/St.Anthony’s, Five88 Apartments-Mission Bay, luxury Channel Apartments, Potrero Launch, and Azure Apartments, and 474 Natoma Street and the renovation project The Exploratorium and Cliff House.
Nibbi offers a wide array of general contracting services, including estimating, constructability review, quality assurance, value engineering, scheduling, life-cycle analysis, subcontractor selection, and material procurement. Virtually all of Nibbi’s projects incorporate green building practices and prefabricated assemblies.
Clark Construction
180 Howard Street Suite 1200 San Francisco, California 94105
Founded in 1906, Clark Construction has grown to become one of the most established firms in the United States today, with a roster of around 4,200 employees. Robert D. Moser heads the firm, while Mike Ricker serves as the regional executive officer for its San Francisco operation. That branch is the fourth largest contractor in the Bay Area.
The firm, in partnership with Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company, built the Salesforce Tower, the highest tower in San Francisco, which also surpassed the Chrysler Building in New York as the seventh tallest building in the country. The 61-story, 1,070 feet Salesforce Tower at 101 First Street houses retailing, residential, corporate, and commercial clients.
Clark Construction is also working on the Park Tower at Transbay, a 43-story building overlooking the San Francisco Bay – set for completion in Spring 2018. Its other works in San Francisco include government and industrial projects such as the San Francisco Police Department Traffic Company, UCSF Sandler Neurosciences, and Chase Center.
In their 100 years of business, the firm has accumulated 1,400 awards and consistently ranks high among the nation’s leading building and civil contractors. The firm won 19 Associated General Contractors of America awards, eight Construction Eagle Awards, four Best of the Best Awards from the Engineering News Record (ENR), and 15 Design-Build Institution of America awards.
Webcor
207 King Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, CA 94107
Webcor is a San Francisco-based general contractor specializing in large-scale, complex builds. Bill Wilson, Ross Edwards, Dave Boyd, and Miller Ream co-founded the firm in 1971, and now Jes Pedersen manages the firm as president.
In 1987, Webcor built its first high-rise project in San Francisco; the condominium complex Museum Parc at 3rd and Folsom. Since then, the firm has completed the Taube-Koret Campus, 38 Dolores in San Francisco, the 41-story luxury building The Infinity, and The 88 located in San Jose.
Webcor is currently working on completing a mixed-use building in Palo Alto – the 1.6B USD Transbay Terminal project-and the 706 Mission Street project in downtown San Francisco, among others. The firm offers early design, estimating, scheduling, procurement, constructability, design and build, and construction-related matters such as cost control, schedule performance, and document control.
Webcor’s works have appeared in multiple issues of Building Design + Construction Magazine and ENR Magazine. The firm received the ENR California’s Contractor of the Year award and ENR California’s Best Projects in 2016. The San Francisco Business Times has given the firm a Women of Influence 2017 award for employees Shelley Doran and Amanda Gillespie, and the San Francisco Business Times named the firm as one of the best places to work in the Bay Area.
Cahill Construction
25 California Street, Suite 2200, San Francisco, CA 94104
Cahill Construction is one of the oldest construction firms in San Francisco, with its founding in the early 1900s by John R. Cahill. From residential builds, the firm expanded their services to building commercial, civic, parking, and hospitality projects. Third generation Kathryn Cahill manages the family business and is the first female CEO of the firm. Says Cahill, “We focus on quality, collaboration, and value. Our projects are tightly controlled and well-managed, providing clients, architects, and subcontractors complete projects on time, under budget, and to the client’s utmost satisfaction.”
Cahill offers general contracting services including project control, project selection, subcontracting, and self-perform duties such as framing and rough carpentry. The firm has partnered with renowned architectural firms such as Bar Architects, and Richard Beard Architects. Their work includes Bayview Hill, Oxford Plaza, Lonea, 300 Ivu Condominiums, Transbay Block, 1600 Market Street Condominiums, and 923 Folsom.
Cahill’s work has appeared in American Builders Quarterly, Atlantic Cities, the New York Times, and New York Magazine. In addition, the San Francisco Business Times named the firm as one the best places to work in the Bay Area, and awarded Cahill the ‘Real Estate Deals of the Year’ award.
Build Group
57 Minna Street San Francisco, CA 94103
Build Group, based in San Francisco, is a full-service, general contracting firm founded in 2007. The firm is one of the most established contracting firms in the area, having completed multiple projects from different industries including residential, corporate office, retail, health sciences, and mixed-use.
Build Group’s projects include a 39-story, mixed-use building of a million square feet at the corner of Mission Street and South Van Ness Avenue, a 13-story, demolition, and construction mixed-use project in San Francisco, and a remodel of a 100-year old building at 973 Market which features high-end lofts. The firm currently has 24 residential, mixed-use projects in their portfolio, as well as several more due to be completed in 2019 and 2020.
Build Group describes their method of success: “We hold one another accountable to perform to clear standards of excellence every day. Our defined workflow allows us to measure how effective we are, so we can regularly refine our process, improve our teamwork and above all, our client service.”
Build Group was named as the 19th Largest Commercial Contractor in the area by the San Francisco Business Journal, and ranked 93 out of 5,000 companies in 2013 by INC.com. The Los Angeles Business Journal named the firm as one of the best places to work for in 2017, while its Chief Financial Officer Jason Berry became a finalist for the Bay Area’s Top CFO.
