Old Town · Pinole Valley · Tennent Avenue · San Pablo Avenue · Pinole Valley Road
Schedule a Discovery ConsultationPinole has two personalities. Old Town, along San Pablo Avenue, is full of Queen Anne cottages, hip roof cottages and bungalows built more than a century ago. Up Pinole Valley Road, the homes are newer and the lots climb toward the ridges.
We design and build outdoor living spaces for Pinole homeowners in both. The goal is the same either way: a yard that fits the house and gets used every week.
The historic Bank of Pinole building in Old Town. Photo: Sanfranman59, CC BY-SA 3.0
Pinole is the kind of place where you can walk from the 1915 Bank of Pinole building down Tennent Avenue to Fernandez Park and keep going to Bayfront Park, a two-acre city park on San Pablo Bay with a view all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. Pinole Valley Park adds 231 acres of fields, picnic areas and trails on the other side of town.
The name Pinole comes from the Spanish word for cornmeal. In 1823, Ygnacio Martinez received the Rancho El Pinole land grant and built his hacienda in Pinole Valley, on land that is now Pinole Valley Park. The railroad arrived in 1878, the city incorporated on June 25, 1903, and many of Old Town's cottages were built for workers at the powder works in neighboring Hercules. The Fernandez Mansion, built in 1894, still stands at the end of Tennent Avenue.
Older cottages call for materials with some texture and age to them. Newer valley homes can carry cleaner, more modern lines. We design to the house.
Answer five quick questions and see the features and projects built for the way you live.
Pinole is one of the Contra Costa cities with very high fire hazard severity areas on the state's 2025 maps, generally on the hillsides. Homes near Pinole Creek or on the bay side can have drainage and setback considerations of their own. Permits run through the City of Pinole, and we confirm requirements for your parcel during planning.
Every project begins with a discovery consultation. We learn about your home, your goals and how you want to live outside, then recommend the right next step.
Schedule a Discovery ConsultationYes. Small lots just need tighter planning. A patio, built-in seating, planters and lighting can turn a narrow yard into the most-used room of the house.
It can, which is why we choose materials and lines that suit the home. For Old Town houses we often lean toward natural stone and warmer finishes.
Terracing with retaining walls is the usual answer, with drainage designed in from the start.
A Discovery Consultation, where we walk the yard together and talk through your goals.
