Supporting Recovery Through Reuse After LA Wildfires


BY MERSY MARADIAGA, SUSTAINABILITY MANAGER, TURNER CONSTRUCTION COMPANY


Following the devastating wildfires across the Los Angeles area in early 2025, a project team mobilized quickly to support nearby communities through a focused material donation effort. In partnership with the client and local nonprofit ANEW, the


Turner rolled out pilot programs for electric excavators and electric skidsteers in 2023 and 2024, including this Volvo EC230 all-electric excavator. Photo courtesy Turner Construction.


team coordinated the salvage and distribution of furniture from an existing hotel, redirecting 59 tons of donated materials to families affected by the fires as well as to local shelters and housing organizations. The effort required rapid site assessments, logistics planning, and coordination


to ensure materials were carefully removed, stored, and distributed where they were needed most. This effort helped save 99% of the furniture from ending in the landfill.


tions are scaled back to a Basis of Design type of criteria, and the details of carbon reductions, material selections, and ma- teriality of a system are not well-defined?


Leveraging Collaborative Design-Build to Identify Lower Carbon Solutions Increasingly, select trades are being pro- cured through the design-build deliv- ery model. Tese trades often include curtainwall, along with other exterior


façade elements such as precast or metal panels, and GFRC (glass fiber-reinforced concrete).


Te design-build approach for these unique systems is implemented to streamline coordination, manage risk, and improve efficiency. When carbon is introduced as an additional project priority alongside cost and schedule, the collaborative design-build structures should be leveraged to identify low- er-carbon solutions early in the process.


Trade partners bring deep expertise in materials, fabrication, transport, and installation, and it is critical to ensure their design-build scope meets both de- sign intent and sustainability objectives. In Northern California, Turner Con-


struction Company project teams, sup- ported by the sustainability department, are collaborating with these design-build trade contractors during preconstruction meetings to confirm each is incorporating sustainability targets into their design and


CALIFORNIA CONSTRUCTOR JULY/AUGUST 2026


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