Between 1958 and 1977, Sunset Homes built more than 3,500 homes across Livermore, helping transform the city 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. |
Building neighborhoods across Livermore, 1958–1977
Sunset Homes developed six major Livermore neighborhoods between 1958 and 1977. Viewed together, they trace the city's suburban evolution, with each community reflecting a different moment in the changing aspirations of California homebuyers.
These neighborhoods unfolded in stages, tracking Livermore’s shift from agricultural valley town to suburban city.
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| Annotated aerial map of neighborhoods built by Sunset Homes. Spanning decades of development from 1958 to 1977, this master-planned community reshaped Livermore’s suburban identity and houses over 12,000 residents. Base imagery from Google Maps. |
Geographic extension: The Meadows
While most Sunset Homes development clustered in south and west Livermore, a later project extended the company’s reach into other parts of the city. The Meadows, located in northern Livermore, represents this final phase of expansion—still part of the same development system, but geographically distinct from the core Sunset neighborhoods.
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| Annotated aerial map of The Meadows neighborhood in Livermore, California, built by Sunset Homes. Base imagery from Google Maps. |
A blueprint for suburban Livermore
Granada Village became the blueprint for modern suburban Livermore. It introduced the curving streets, neighborhood parks, nearby schools, and family-oriented planning that would define much of the city's postwar growth.
For many Livermore residents, Granada Village was their introduction to suburban homeownership. It demonstrated that large-scale planned communities could succeed locally and established the framework that Sunset Homes would continue refining over the next two decades.
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| 1962 Sunset Homes ad promoted Granada Village as a 1,700-home planned community, illustrating the ambitious scale of Sunset's first major Livermore neighborhood. |
A new generation of neighborhoods
By the mid-1960s, buyer expectations had begun to change. Families wanted larger homes, more distinctive architecture, and floorplans tailored to modern lifestyles.
Rather than repeating earlier successes, Sunset Homes embraced experimentation. New developments introduced fresh architectural styles, expanded amenities, and innovative floorplans. The arrival of designer Kenneth Gooch marked a turning point as Sunset Homes began pursuing more ambitious residential designs.
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| June 1966 Oakland Tribune ad—the Castillo Marques was the star of Sunset’s boldest lineup yet—part of a series so popular, it helped break company sales records in 1966. |
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| March 1968 Oakland Tribune—Sunset’s visitors center was built to showcase designs and materials directly to buyers, reinforcing the company’s emphasis on experiential sales. |
When design became a selling point
Sunset East became the showcase for this new direction.
Working with 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 completed areas such as Shadowbrook and The Meadows were formally introduced and marketed under their own names, as Sunset Homes shifted from a unified Sunsetown 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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| 1972 newspaper photo—what south Livermore used to look like. The southern portion of Whispering Pines opened on May 7, 1972. |
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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.
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