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Read about the J.C. Baldwin Construction Company in the news. The following articles describe various coastal bluff stabilization, beach access, and landslide control projects for which we have received public recognition.
The Stairmaster of Encinitas
Gary Taylor
Encinitas Magazine, January 1993
 Jim Baldwin is making it easier for locals and visitors alike to reach the beach in Encinitas. As the boss of Baldwin Construction, he has overseen the construction of the beach accesses at Stone Steps, D Street and Swami's, and is currently putting the finishing touches on a third major stairway north of Grandview Street, just a block away from his Neptune Avenue home. (The Grandview access will be officially reopened and dedicated by the city at 3 p.m. Friday, Jan. 22.)
Baldwin is considered to be one of the foremost experts in transporting folks from bluff to beach in style. After 10 years' work with the huge L.A.-based Merli. Co., pouring concrete for such jobs as the Queen Mary berth and the arched overpasses on the 805 and 15 freeways, Baldwin moved to Leucadia and struck off on his own. Neighbors on the bluff side of Neptune discovered his talent with cement, and Baldwin soon found himself building protective seawalls. His phone has been ringing off the hook ever since.
"Once someone heard I did a seawall, it just snowballed," Baldwin says. "I literally turn away more than I can do right now. I get calls from San Luis Obispo to the border. I got calls from two Santa Barbara architects yesterday."
Baldwin now works exclusively on public works projects, such as the Encinitas beach accesses and a massive $3 million seawall recently completed to protect the Point Loma sewage treatment plant, hailed for blending in with its natural surroundings. "We did $3 million worth of work on that wall and you can't even tell where it starts and stops," says Baldwin proudly.
Indeed, Baldwin walks a thin line between developers, city planners and environmentalists who continually clash on coastal development issues. A major litmus test for Baldwin's skills came when the city decided to rebuild the old Swami's stairway. Skeptical surfers and beachgoers feared the worst - a sterile monstrosity of cement that would probably collapse down the park's ultra-fragile bluff. Using laminated wood beams and an expensive securing process known as rock-bolting, Baldwin and designer Glen Schmidt created a stairway that pleased even the skeptics, and won a prestigious Orchid Award from San Diego designers. And so far, it's still standing.
Baldwin says the biggest engineering challenge in building a coastal stairway is laying the foundation. Workers must battle waves and tides to evacuate up to 15 feet below the mean high-tide line. "After we get the foundation done, the rest is pretty elementary."
So far, "economic recession" is not in Baldwin's vocabulary. Currently he is supervising jobs in Dana Point, San Clemente, Oceanside, and Encinitas.
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