COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Region: Northern California

Years of Service: 2024 – Present

Scope of Services Provided

4LEAF provided expert Plan Review and Inspection services for the County of San Mateo’s landmark Office Building #3 (COB3) in Redwood City. This cutting-edge, 208,000-square-foot headquarters serves as a model for modern civic architecture, designed to house over 600 county employees and the Board of Supervisors chambers. As a historic milestone in sustainable construction, COB3 is the first civic building in the United States to combine a mass timber structural system—featuring glulam beams and columns with Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) floor decks—with a net-zero energy design. This innovative approach reduced structural embodied carbon by 85% compared to conventional steel or concrete alternatives.

4LEAF delivers comprehensive, multi-discipline plan check services to ensure every project within the County’s $1 billion infrastructure program meets rigid structural, life-safety, and building code requirements before construction begins. Working hand-in-hand with the Project Development Unit (PDU), our seasoned plan examiners meticulously review architectural drawings, engineering calculations, and fire protection layouts to identify potential compliance issues early, mitigating costly field delays and ensuring a streamlined path to permitting.

Public safety and structural integrity are at the forefront of our field operations. 4LEAF provides dedicated, highly specialized fire inspection services across the County’s diverse portfolio of municipal, healthcare, and emergency response facilities. From verifying advanced fire suppression and alarm systems to checking rigorous building egress compliance, our field inspectors ensure that all new construction and modernized structures offer maximum protection for county staff and the public alike.

As the trusted Inspector of Record for the PDU program, 4LEAF provides continuous, independent oversight to guarantee that construction aligns perfectly with approved construction documents, state building codes, and local ordinances. Our team is responsible for performing structural combination inspections and generating the detailed inspection reports required to verify quality control, manage risk, and successfully drive major public works projects from groundbreaking to final occupancy.

Under an on-call contract with the San Mateo County Department of Public Works, 4LEAF provided comprehensive Construction Management, Public Works inspection, special inspection, materials testing, and labor compliance monitoring for the transformative $14M Tunitas Creek Beach Improvements Project. Working in collaboration with County departments and key stakeholders, 4LEAF’s team oversaw the complex site transformation between Highway 1 and the beach 100 feet below, which included slope stabilization, mass grading, a new 2,000+ linear foot pedestrian trail with soldier piles and retaining walls, a new parking lot with EV charging stations, a park ranger shed, and public restrooms.

4LEAF successfully managed weekly construction meetings, cloud-based Procore document controls (RFIs, submittals, and change orders), monthly pay requests, and punch lists. Field personnel delivered rigorous daily public works inspections, monitored contractor adherence to contract plans and specifications, ensured labor law and certified payroll compliance, and coordinated closely with environmental teams, utility providers (PG&E, AT&T, Comcast), Caltrans, and San Mateo County Parks biologists to maintain strict adherence to biological and ecological mitigation requirements.