Encanto del Mar is a low-income, affordable housing project located in downtown Ventura, California. The project sits in a prime spot in the core of the downtown area and just a few blocks from the historic San Buenaventura Mission. It features 37 dwellings and opportunities for commercial business on the corner. The Encanto del Mar homes are arranged around courtyards. Most of the onsite parking is underground with the development above.

The site’s variable thickness of soft compressible clays and silts over dense granular deposits. That combination with shallow groundwater and high point loads associated with the proposed partially subterranean concrete podium structure presented geotechnical challenges. They were met with a conventional spread foundation supported on rammed aggregate piers.

Earth Systems provided the geotechnical studies, liquefaction and seismicity studies, construction monitoring, and special inspection for the project.