A dairy barn built in 1924 on the Gambonini family’s 540-acre Petaluma ranch has been transformed into a special event venue, and the project has now picked up an Excellence in Construction award for its builders. The barn sits on the family’s working ranch near Lakeville, land the Gamboninis have worked since they purchased it in 1913.
The honor, detailed in the Press Democrat, recognizes a project that aimed to preserve and repurpose the historic agricultural structure while giving the ranch a new way to generate income. Frank and Stacey Gambonini are listed as the project’s developers and owners, with Evenich Construction serving as builder, Rick J. Brereton as architect, Greg Shooter Company as landscape architect, Adobe & Associates, Inc. as civil engineer, and MKM & Associates Structural Engineering handling the structural work, according to the same report.
From Working Dairy to Wedding Destination
The barn’s roots run deep into the ranch’s agricultural past. It was reconstructed in 1924 after fire destroyed the original structure around 1921, using salvaged lumber from the old Cotati Speedway, per the Press Democrat’s account, and a smaller addition followed in 1939. For generations, the barn served the ranch’s agricultural operations before sitting largely unused once the Gambonini family discontinued its dairy milking operation in 2019.
That shutdown came after what Frank Gambonini described as years of watching California’s dairy industry decline. “At the end of 2019, after four years of watching the decline of the dairy industry in California, Frank made the hard decision to stop the milking operation,” according to a Q&A published by Petaluma Gap. The ranch at its peak carried 600 cows, the same Q&A notes…