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History

The Building Industry Association of Southern California has been the voice of Southern California's homebuilding industry for more than 90 years.

Organized in 1923 as the Building Contractors Association, the group first covered the local Los Angeles area. It incorporated 10 years later in 1933 as the Building Contractors Association of Southern California, Inc., and reorganized in 1938 to become an organization with chapters in various communities.

The group chartered the Los Angeles Chapter in 1938 and more than two dozen other chapters soon thereafter.  Some of these chapters included Glendale-Burbank, Pasadena-San Gabriel Valley, Riverside County, Santa Barbara, Contractors Southeast, Builder-Developer, Ventura, Orange County, Bay Area, San Fernando Valley, Antelope Valley, Baldy View, Kern County, Whittier, Compton, Manhattan-Hermosa-Redondo, Palm Springs, Fresno, Imperial Valley, Laguna Beach, San Diego, Santa Maria, East Los Angeles, Long Beach and Victor Valley.

In 1940, the group changed its name to the Building Contractors Association of California, Inc. 

Then in 1942, the federal government issued Order L-41 that restricted building and the use of building materials during World War II. Construction halted throughout Southern California forcing some contractors out of business. Most joined the armed forces, moved into government jobs or left Southern California to build in places where they could get priorities from the War Production Board for construction essential to the war effort.

Because of these factors, 10 chapters went inactive during the 1940s and many more merged and re-organized after the war. 

In 1946, the Builder-Developer Chapter withdrew from the Building Contractors Association (BCA) and formed a Home Builders Institute charter, which evolved into the Home Builders Association of Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties (HBA).

The BCA and the HBA joined forces in 1967 and consolidated into the Building Industry Association of California, Inc. It formally changed its name to the current Building Industry Association of Southern California in 1978.

The initial Los Angeles Chapter remains, but now covers territory from Long Beach up through Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley, west through all of Ventura County and east into the San Gabriel Valley. It is now called the Los Angeles/Ventura Chapter.

Other chapters consolidated through the years into the current four chapters:

Baldy View
LA Ventura
Orange County
Riverside County