The odds of leaving Las Vegas with a big win is highly unlikely. However, at the recent national Design-Build Conference and Expo at Caesar’s Palace, Buehler was dealt a winning hand! Yerba Buena High School Student Union hit the jackpot with 4 awards including the Merit Award, National Award of Excellence - Best Educational Facility, Best in Process, and The Chairman’s Award.  

This story is so much more than that though; it is a story of how a structure can unite a community. Located in a district where 77% of the residents live below poverty level, the team of Flint Builders, MFDB Architects, JK Architecture + Engineering, and Buehler collaborated with stakeholders to ensure that the diverse needs of the school and community were addressed. As one of the first K-12 design-build projects in California, the new facility transformed the campus entrance into an environment where everyone is welcome – students, faculty, administrators, and the surrounding community. Larry Jones, Principal-in-Charge for the project, had this to say, “Being recognized nationally is a great honor for us. Yerba Buena was not a large project in scale but is a great example of our values - an innovative and creative design and construction process that resulted in a huge impact to a community. The “transformation” was real physically, in the building structures and their presentation; and socially, becoming a focus of school and community pride as well as an opportunity for greater learning and fellowship. The true reward is seeing the impact of our work on the people that use it.” 

Yerba Buena proved that even though it’s size may be considered small to some, the impact it had on the community was one of great magnitude. As design-build continues to set the bar in project delivery, Buehler will remain an active promoter of its advantages while focusing on projects that ensure our communities are thriving. 

Yerba Buena High School Student Union