COSTA MESA : Inspector Also Guide at OCC Building Site

For 25 years, she has been an eager student of the construction business. Now Wanda B. Culver wants her construction sites to be classrooms for others--with her as teacher.

Culver, 56, a sought-after construction inspector and one of few women in a male-dominated field, is the on-site inspector of Orange Coast College’s $8.5-million Vocational Technology Building project at the Costa Mesa campus.

Since the groundbreaking of the 78,000-square-foot building during the summer, Culver has conducted tours for students and school officials.

“Instructors enjoy going out and standing on the piece of ground that will someday be their classroom or lab,” she said. “I get a kick out of introducing them to their future homes.

“I want to involve them in the project early on. If they gain a good understanding of what’s taking place now, they’ll appreciate the building even more in the years ahead.”

The only problem, she said, is that people tend to be impatient. “They want to move in right now,” she said.

Scheduled for completion in April, 1994, the technology building will feature specialized labs, two large lecture halls and several classrooms. It will house 14 technical programs, including computer-aided drafting and avionics, as well as machine shops and computer graphics equipment.

“This is an exciting project,” Culver said. “It’s designed to evolve over the next 40 years for technologies not yet invented. It will be an extremely flexible kind of building, with facilities suited for quick upgrades.”

Certified by the Office of the State Architect, Culver is a member of various trade organizations, including the American Construction Inspectors’ Assn. and the National Assn. of Women in Construction.

For the past two years, she has been teaching a 13-week course at OCC entitled “How Construction Works: From Bottom to Top.”

Still, she gets her highs from working in the field, she said.

She is a graduate of the school of hard knocks, Culver said. She did not go to college; all she has learned, she learned hands-on.

“That’s how you learn this business,” said the Tulsa, Okla., native.

She got married at 20, was divorced eight years later and by age 31 was raising two daughters through a variety of jobs, including one as a theater cashier. She drifted into the construction business in 1967 and has never left it.

“I learned to do it all,” she said. “I became a secretary of a construction organization. I learned from some wonderful mentors. I think men felt sorry for me, but they were always supportive and helpful.”

Among the projects she has been involved with are the Crocker Center in Los Angeles and the remodeling of San Francisco International Airport. She has also traveled the country as an asbestos consultant.

Culver said it’s her job to see construction done according to plans and in compliance with state and city codes.

“I can stop work at any time, and I have,” she said. “I try not to blow my top. It’s not what Wanda wants. It’s what the plans say.”

She works with a team of soil, concrete and masonry inspectors. To gain their respect and that of the other workers, Culver said, she must show that she knows what she’s doing.

It has not always been easy, she said, partly because of her being a woman.

“I have to be more assertive,” she said. “It takes me about three weeks to a month to establish authority. For a man, it takes about two weeks.”