Acclaimed San Jose developer and proprietor of the constructing firm Swenson Builders, Barron “Barry” Swenson, died on Saturday on the age of 85 after a lifetime of establishing lots of the South Bay’s most iconic buildings.
“I’m one of those guys who can make a bar of soap last a year. I don’t waste anything,” Swenson often mentioned in his life, in keeping with the corporate’s web site.
Swenson’s household couldn’t be instantly reached for touch upon Sunday.
Constructing upon the groundwork laid by his father’s constructing firm within the first half of the twentieth century, Swenson cast his personal firm, Barry Swenson Builders, in 1977, the place it grew to prominence along with the buildings that adorn San Jose’s skyline. These efforts had been half of a bigger plan by Swenson to form San Jose as a lovely vacation spot for companies and the group, in keeping with Swenson Builders’ web site.
Jesse L. Nickell III, former senior vice chairman of Barry Swenson Builders, mentioned Swenson was a even handed businessman, a loyal chief and a “man of the Earth.” Nickell and Swenson labored collectively rebuilding dozens of Santa Cruz properties after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, as a result of they each believed Santa Cruz would come again higher than earlier than.
Swenson’s portfolio spans residential condos and senior flats, industrial buildings for high firms and mixed-use city purchasing facilities. Within the 2000s, Swenson developed a brand new design strategy for structural concrete buildings within the Bay Space with the introduction of Landmaker. He obtained the patent for this strategy in 2016.
“He loved to hunt and pull vegetables from the garden and eat things fresh and unadulterated. He loved good Irish whiskey and was the salt of the Earth. ” Nickell mentioned. “He is a brother I will miss.”
