Alpha Structural, a leader in hillside stabilization, landslide mitigation and structural/foundation repairs, announces the opening of its new Santa Barbara office at 829 De La Vina Street, scheduled for Spring 2026. More than a geographic expansion, the new office represents a return to roots for Founder Dave Tourjé, whose career—and lifelong focus on complex geological and structural issues—began in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties decades ago.
When Tourjé first moved to Santa Barbara in 1978 to attend UC Santa Barbara, he could never have imagined that he would one day return to open an office for the company he spent his life building. As a student, he began taking on small carpentry jobs—fixing fences and doing odd construction work around town—gaining firsthand exposure to the region’s building environment and terrain.
By 1980, Tourjé was working for the local legend Jack Ostrander of Ostrander Construction, a respected Santa Barbara builder known for mentoring young tradespeople. Under Ostrander’s guidance, Tourjé gained valuable hands-on experience in construction and problem-solving within the region’s demanding conditions.
That path later took him south to La Conchita, where he worked for contractor Doug Richardson in one of California’s most landslide-prone areas. During this time, Tourjé lived in a Quonset hut at the base of what would later become one of the deadliest landslides in California history, directly experiencing the consequences of unstable hillsides and soil movement. While working in the Ventura and Santa Barbara region, he helped repair smaller landslides—early work that would foreshadow a career defined by large-scale hillside stabilization and landslide mitigation as well as complex foundation systems designed for deep unstable hillside conditions.
“Returning to Santa Barbara isn’t about entering a new market,” says Dave Tourjé, Owner and CEO of Alpha Structural. “It’s about coming back to where the work that defines our company actually began. The geology here taught me early lessons that shaped how I approached hillside stability, foundations, and long-term structural reinforcement.”
Tackling California’s Geological Challenges
Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties are celebrated for their natural beauty, but beneath the surface lies some of California’s most complex and demanding geological conditions. Steep hillsides, unstable coastal bluffs, seismic exposure, and a long history of dangerous landslides continue to place pressure on residential and commercial properties alike—many of which were built before modern stabilization, drainage and geological standards existed.
The challenges Tourjé encountered decades ago remain present today. Aging foundations and structural systems, hillside instability, and soil movement continue to affect homeowners throughout the Central Coast, often revealing themselves only after significant weather events or ground movement.
Local Experience, Long-Term Commitment
The Santa Barbara office reflects Alpha Structural’s belief that meaningful solutions come from local understanding paired with long-term Design/Build experience. While the company has grown into one of Southern California’s most established structural repair firms, its approach remains grounded in the lessons learned early on—working directly with difficult terrain, unstable slopes, and complex geological forces.
Now, Tourjé and his capable team brings that experience back to a region he knows intimately, opening a physical office to better serve Santa Barbara and Ventura County property owners facing the same challenges that helped shape Alpha Structural’s expertise over 40 years ago.
The new office will support Commercial and Residential services focused on the issues most relevant to the region today, including:
Foundation Repair: Addressing settlement, cracking, and aging foundations.
Structural and Seismic Repairs/ Upgrades: Augmenting and repairing buildings with known or potential structural deficiencies.
Hillside Stabilization: Securing steep slopes and vulnerable properties.
Landslide Mitigation: Proactive solutions to reduce soil movement and risk.
A Full-Circle Moment
For Tourjé, the Santa Barbara opening is both a professional milestone and a personal return—reconnecting decades of experience with the place where it all began. “Santa Barbara isn’t just where I started—it’s where the philosophy behind Alpha Structural was actually formed,” says Tourjé. “Opening this office feels like completing a circle. The challenges that shaped our expertise are still here, and we’re here to meet them.”
About Alpha Structural, Inc.
Dave Tourjé began doing construction work as a teenager on the hillsides of Northeast Los Angeles, where he grew up. That early exposure sparked a lifelong focus on hillside foundations and stabilization. His time working in Ventura and Santa Barbara placed him around the same geological challenges that continue to shape California communities today. Returning to Los Angeles in the early 1980s, Tourjé again gravitated toward hillside work, becoming a go-to expert by age 25.
Today, Alpha Structural Inc. is one of Southern California’s leading structural repair and engineering firms, headquartered in Los Angeles with additional offices across the region and an in-house team of nearly 200. For more than 30 years, the company has specialized in foundation repair, hillside stabilization, structural upgrades, and seismic retrofitting. Dual-licensed to both engineer and build in-house, Alpha Structural delivers integrated solutions that reduce miscommunication and cost overruns. For more information visit Alpha Structural.
