Published May 7, 2025 · Last updated: October 10, 2026
Between 1958 and 1977, Sunset Homes became one of Livermore’s most influential homebuilders, constructing more than 3,500 homes across the city and helping transform it from a small agricultural community into one of the Tri-Valley’s defining suburban landscapes. Over nearly two decades, each new neighborhood reflected changing ideas about architecture, family life, and the California dream.
Led by developer Masud Mehran, Sunset Homes focused almost exclusively on Livermore, treating the city as an opportunity to rethink suburban living. Rather than repeating the same formula, each successive neighborhood introduced new planning concepts, architectural styles, and community amenities designed for a new generation of homebuyers.
The result became known as Sunsetown—not a single subdivision, but a collection of neighborhoods that together document the evolution of postwar suburbia. From the family-oriented streets of Granada Village to the award-winning designs of Sunset East and the open-space planning of Shadowbrook, Sunset Homes helped shape modern Livermore while continually redefining what suburban life could become.
Sunset Homes’ work in Livermore unfolded as a continuous sequence of developments rather than separate projects. Each neighborhood built on the last, responding to shifting expectations in housing, design, and suburban life.
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| Livermore in 1961 showing the first Sunset Homes tracts in Granada Village, three years into development. Following recent annexation, the city was already transitioning into a structured pattern of suburban expansion. |
Sunset Homes neighborhoods in Livermore
Between 1958 and 1977, Sunset Homes built six principal neighborhoods in Livermore. The names used in the company's advertising changed over time, and some differ from the names residents use today.
- Granada Village (now commonly called Sunset West) — Begun in 1958, Granada Village was later identified as Sunset in the company's advertising.
- Sunset East
- Whispering Pines — Initially marketed as Sunset South.
- Three Fountains
- Shadowbrook
- The Meadows — Located in north Livermore, separate from the company's other principal holdings.
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| Annotated aerial map of five connected Sunset Homes neighborhoods in Livermore, built between 1958 and 1977. The Meadows, located separately in northern Livermore, is shown in the map below. Base imagery from Google Maps. |
Around 1970, Sunset Homes began promoting its Livermore holdings collectively as Sunsetown. The name brought the company's neighborhoods under a shared marketing identity, though it did not replace their individual names.
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| Location of The Meadows, a Sunset Homes neighborhood in northern Livermore, geographically separate from the company's other principal neighborhoods. Base imagery from Google Maps. |
Sunset Homes housing tracts and home series
Sunset Homes used a variety of names for its housing tracts and home series in Livermore. Some names identify collections of home designs, while others refer to individual tracts or neighborhoods.
- Granada Woods, Livermore: Sunset Homes' 1963 custom-home enclave
- Granada Village 300 Series by Sunset Homes — 1964 Livermore homes
- Sunset by Sunset Homes — 1965 Livermore homes
- Sunset East 600 Series by Sunset Homes — 1968 Livermore homes
- Sunset East Young Americans Series by Sunset Homes — 1969 Livermore homes
- Ivanhoe Villas, Livermore: Sunset Homes' 1970 housing tract
- Wildwood by Sunset Homes — 1970 Livermore homes
- Ripplebrook by Sunset Homes — 1971 Livermore homes
- Quietwood by Sunset Homes — 1971 Livermore homes
- Shadowbrook, Livermore: Sunset Homes' 1973 neighborhood
- The Meadows, Livermore: Sunset Homes' 1973 neighborhood
Granada Village: Sunset Homes grows into a developer
In 1958, developer Masud Mehran acquired 506 acres on Livermore’s southwestern edge for what became Granada Village. Over the following decade, Sunset Homes developed the land in stages, growing from a builder of individual housing tracts into a developer of a large residential district.
By 1962, the company was advertising Granada Village as a planned development of 1,700 homes. Its sales pitch paired the scale of the project with the convenience of Bay Area commuting, while five furnished model homes gave prospective buyers a place to compare designs, finishes, and layouts.
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| September 30, 1962, Daily Review advertisement for Sunset Homes. An aerial view of Granada Village and a map of Bay Area commute routes accompany the promotion of five furnished model homes, illustrating how Sunset marketed the development as both a large planned community and a convenient location for commuters. |
As Granada Village grew, Sunset Homes expanded its range of houses. The 300 Series and the later Sunset line represent different stages in that evolution, from successive groups of tract homes to designs that made architectural variety a more prominent part of the offering.
The company also changed how it sold its homes. In June 1965, the Oakland Tribune reported the opening of a purpose-built, 1,500-square-foot sales pavilion beside five new model homes on Catalina Drive. Designed by the company’s chief architect, the pavilion included individual sales offices, an escrow office, displays of construction methods and color combinations, and a scale model of the planned development. Mehran explained the thinking behind it: buyers wanted more information about construction and a more comfortable, private place to conduct business, while developers increasingly had to sell the wider concept of a planned residential district.
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| June 6, 1965, Oakland Tribune rendering of Sunset Homes’ new sales pavilion in Granada Village. Designed to present house models, construction methods, and community facilities, the pavilion reflected the company’s expanding approach to selling a planned residential development. |
The homes were selling, too. Sunset Homes reported 259 sales in 1965, a 10 percent increase over the previous year. In May 1966, the company sold a record 62 houses in a single month; 36 were the new tri-level Castillo Marques. By late 1967, the company reported that approximately 2,200 living units were complete, including garden apartments and a custom-home area, alongside a cabana club and neighborhood shopping center. More than 100 additional houses were under construction.
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| June 1966 advertisement for the Castillo Marques, a tri-level home in Sunset Homes’ Livermore development. The model helped drive a record month of sales that May. |
Granada Village reveals how Sunset Homes’ ambitions widened over time. The company was building more than houses: it was developing a large residential district, expanding its housing designs, and creating a sales environment that presented the homes as part of a larger plan. That approach would continue to evolve in Sunset East, where architectural design became an even more explicit selling point.
When design became a selling point
Sunset East became the showcase for this new direction.
Working with architect Kenneth Gooch, Sunset Homes introduced a series of award-winning designs that challenged conventional tract-home thinking. Homes featured dramatic rooflines, innovative interior layouts, and distinctive concepts such as the famous Kitchen in the Round.
These designs helped distinguish Sunset Homes from competitors and demonstrated that suburban housing could be both practical and architecturally ambitious.
Sunset East represented more than a new neighborhood. It marked the moment when Sunset Homes evolved from a successful builder into one of the Tri-Valley's most innovative residential developers.
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| 1968 newspaper ad for the grand opening of Sunset East, promoting the development as a collection of "homes of tomorrow." This approach reflects Sunset Homes' shift toward design-driven housing. |
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| March 1968 newspaper ad—the Kitchen in the Round became Sunset East's signature innovation and helped generate nearly $1 million in sales during the neighborhood's opening weeks. |
The suburban dream evolves
As the 1970s approached, another shift was underway. Buyers increasingly valued privacy, larger lots, natural surroundings, and access to open space.
Projects such as Shadowbrook reflected these changing priorities. Neighborhood planning emphasized mature landscapes, hillside settings, and a stronger connection to the natural environment. The suburban dream had changed again, and Mehran adapted with it.
But even before Shadowbrook and The Meadows formally appeared as named neighborhoods, Sunset Homes was already experimenting with a larger idea.
By 1970, the company began promoting its Livermore holdings collectively as “Sunsetown,” describing a growing community of roughly 12,500 residents. Rather than marketing individual subdivisions in isolation, Sunset Homes framed the entire development as a single, evolving suburban city—one shaped over two decades of continuous expansion.
At the same time, the company introduced an unusual level of buyer flexibility. In its “buy a home, choose a neighborhood” program, purchasers selected a model home from one of three architectural series, then chose where to live within a set of designated enclaves: Sunset East, Three Fountains, or Whispering Pines. The system effectively decoupled house design from fixed neighborhood identity, allowing the landscape to be assembled piece by piece as demand unfolded.
As earlier phases filled out, the framework expanded. By 1973, newly opened neighborhoods such as Shadowbrook and The Meadows were formally introduced and eventually marketed under their own names, as Sunset Homes shifted from a unified identity toward a more differentiated constellation of neighborhoods.
In this sense, “Sunsetown” was never a single subdivision. It was a transitional idea—an attempt to describe a vast, unfolding development that was still being actively assembled, one decision at a time.
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| A $100 million community planned and built by Sunset Homes, the grand opening of the Shadowbrook model complex from June 9, 1974. |
How Sunset helped shape modern Livermore
Today’s Livermore is often understood as a collection of distinct neighborhoods, but that landscape was shaped through a single, continuous process of development.
Across two decades, Sunset Homes introduced a sequence of communities that reflected changing expectations in housing, design, and everyday suburban life. Each neighborhood added a new layer to the city’s growth, capturing a moment in the evolution of postwar California suburbia.
Seen together, these developments form more than a housing record—they document how Livermore itself was assembled, one neighborhood at a time.
Sunset Homes did not simply build subdivisions. It helped define the physical structure of modern Livermore.
Sources
- Daily Review. September 30, 1962. Advertisement for Sunset Homes in Granada Village, Livermore.
- Oakland Tribune. June 6, 1965. “Sunset Now Provides Sales Pavilion.”
- Oakland Tribune. February 13, 1966. “Sunset Sales for 1965 Increased 10%.”
- Oakland Tribune. June 12, 1966. “Sunset Sales During May Set Record.”
- Oakland Tribune. June 19, 1966. Advertisement for the Castillo Marques model home, Sunset Homes, Livermore.
- Oakland Tribune. December 3, 1967. “Sunset Sales Top Previous Best Year.”
Collection
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