Archinect - News

Google scraps $15 billion Silicon Valley development deal with Lendlease

2023-11-06T12:28:00-05:00

Google has scrapped a $15 billion development deal that would have benefitted California’s Silicon Valley with new modern office parks, affordable housing, and mixed-use districts, according to reports published by CNN and Reuters late Friday.

The deals struck with Australian multinational Lendlease cover planned developments in and around Santa Clara County, California, including Sunnyvale and three others in San Jose and Mountain View. Google had previously announced its plans to reduce its company size by about 6% at the beginning of the year.

Both Lendlease and Google had released statements expressing their continued pursuit of the projects in April when the San Jose Downtown West development’s start of construction was put on hold indefinitely. Lendlease now says the four-year-old deal is no longer “mutually beneficial given current market conditions.”

The news strikes a major blow to the faltering...

Google pauses work on 'Downtown West' San Jose development

2023-04-25T11:48:00-04:00

As part of Google’s downsizing that went into effect early this year, the company has gutted its development team for the San Jose campus. The construction project, which was supposed to break ground before the end of 2023, has been put on pause, and no plan to restart construction has been communicated to contractors, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named due to non-disclosure agreements.

The news broke on Friday amid a sector-wide fallout caused in part by the tech recession. CNBC reported that some sources now speculate as to whether or not the 80-acre development will be completed at the same scale though both LendLease and Google have reaffirmed their commitment to it in written statements. Google has now incurred $500 million in losses for the first quarter of the year alone on office lease exit fees.

Previously on Archinect: Google wins approval for 'Downtown West' mega campus in San Jose

Kohn Pedersen Fox, Heatherwick Studio, Grimshaw Architects, SHoP Architects, Solomon Cordwell Buenz, SITELAB urban studio, and West 8 were among the design firms attached to the construction, which was to be the single largest in San Jose history. The project was approved in 2021 after years of planning and an exchange with local opposition groups that ended in the decision to commit to adding $450 million worth of affordable housing and other community initiatives.

Presales commence on Bjarke Ingels' new Nabr development in San Jose

2022-09-27T14:27:00-04:00

Nearly a year after its initial unveiling, Nabr, the housing startup co-founded by Bjarke Ingels, has announced the beginning of presales for the first site in its BIG-designed development in downtown San Jose.

Featuring updated designs for its three-tower block, the firm is promoting the Silicon Valley initiative as a “people-first housing company.” Prospective residents will have the opportunity to purchase a home through either a traditional mortgage servicer or via the Leap lease-to-own alternative.

Ingels has said repeatedly since Nabr's initial announcement that the venture is an attempt to mitigate the barriers to homeownership in America, an issue which has disproportionately affected young people and student loan borrowers, while pushing the broader architectural community to explore new approaches to the concept of housing overall.

Image courtesy Nabr

Prices for a place in SoFA One, the first tower in Nabr's San Jose ensemble to come online, start around $700,000. The firm ...

Kengo Kuma hopes to 'blur the line' between outdoor activity and office work in San Jose

2022-05-12T13:45:00-04:00

Kengo Kuma and Associates has unveiled plans for a new biophilia-laden office complex in downtown San Jose, California.

Under the monicker “Park Habitat,” the massive new 1.3-million-square-foot development offers 20 stories of office and retail spaces which are beset by a network of internal and external parks and gardens.

In a new manifesto published by the group Westbank Campus, the international development group’s founder Ian Gillespie outlined his reasoning for choosing the influential Japanese architect for a design whose scope purportedly entails a focus on user wellness and local environment.

Previously on Archinect: BIG, Kengo Kuma, and Studio Gang tapped for Westbank's San Jose masterplan

“I chose Kengo for a very deliberate reason: Kuma-San has risen to the pinnacle of his profession by blurring the lines between nature and the built environment. His practice is dedicated to making buildings less definitive or solid and more ephemeral. In essence, creating a particular co...

A first look at Nabr, Bjarke Ingels’ disruptor housing company

2021-12-14T11:55:00-05:00

Nabr has offered the first clues of what their homes of the future may look like. The “people-first housing company” was co-founded by Bjarke Ingels with the ambition of “putting more people on a path to owning a high-quality, environmentally friendly home in the city.”

Nabr’s first building is set to be launched at 415 South 3rd Street, San Jose, California in 2023. Designed in collaboration with Bjarke Ingels Group, and named SoFA One, the project will consist of more than 100 homes personalized by each owner. Prices are expected to start in the high $700Ks, with interested parties able to join a waitlist for the homes from 2022.

Image by The Boundary for Nabr

The waitlist for Nabr Homes will be open to everyone, with applicants able to fill out specific details on the units they are seeking. When the service matches the applicant’s preferences to an available unit in their area, the applicant will be invited to Nabr’s Design Studio to select and customize the home, including l...

Judge denies petition to preserve Brutalist bank in San Jose, making way for its demolition

2021-11-03T17:07:00-04:00

The development of a huge office campus in downtown San Jose can proceed and an old bank building can be demolished, a Santa Clara County judge has decided in a new ruling on the controversial building. A proposed development that would replace downtown San Jose’s decades-old CityView Plaza with a modern tech campus that could bring 14,000 jobs to the city’s urban core is at the heart of a legal action whose goal was to preserve a bank building designed in a “brutalist” architectural style.

The ruling denies a petition filed by the Preservation Action Council of San Jose filed seeking to preserve the 1973 Bank of California building and alter the construction of the new office campus being developed by real estate company Jay Paul Co. The petition by the preservationist group claimed that the San Jose City Council conducted a flawed environmental review process for the development and that it should be revisited.

The group also suggested that it might be possible to incorporate the brutalist structure within the proposed campus. This and the call to delay the demolition of the bank until another environmental impact report could be conducted were rejected by the judge.

Eight other structures will also be demolished for the redeveloped CityView Plaza, making room for a trio of 19-story, glass office towers designed by Gensler.

A homeless encampment is growing on Apple's future North San Jose campus

2021-08-10T17:56:00-04:00

A large homeless encampment is growing on the site Apple earmarked for its North San Jose campus, two years after Apple made waves with a $2.5 billion pledge to combat the Bay Area’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis.

Campers appear to have migrated from the nearby Mineta San Jose International Airport, which the city began clearing in late June at the urging of the FAA. Apple bought parts of the 55-acre site in North San Jose in early 2018 and currently holds no publicized plans for its development.

Nearly half of the U.S.'s homeless population lives in California alone. The state has been tragically unable to address the issue impactfully for the past two decades as rising home prices and a paucity of affordable housing are steadfastly combining to make matters worse. San Jose Spotlight has more on development issues at the site here.

Controversial San Jose Flea Market redevelopment gets approval from city council

2021-07-08T19:27:00-04:00

The council’s decision comes after months of significant organizing and protesting, including a two-day hunger strike last week, by vendors who felt that they were shut out of negotiations. It also follows months of mediating between the vendors and the Bumb family by councilmember David Cohen, who represents the district where the market is located.

A large multi-use development project has been proposed for the site, which is adjacent to a BART station, since at least 2007. The site currently hosts a flea market that caters to primarily Spanish-speaking lower-income residents.

Recent protests have combined public outcry to draw some concessions. The Bumb family, which owns the property, will pay $5 million to the vendors as part of an assistance package that will allow them to stay until construction begins.

The Mercury News has more on the story here.

Google wins approval for 'Downtown West' mega campus in San Jose

2021-05-26T11:04:00-04:00

Google’s major campus development in San Jose, California has been unanimously approved by city officials. “Downtown West” will see the delivery of 7.3 million square feet of office space for 20,000 workers, as well as thousands of housing units, spread across an 80-acre site. The scheme involves a number of prominent architecture and urban design firms, including Kohn Pedersen Fox, Heatherwick Studio, Grimshaw Architects, SHoP Architects, Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB), SITELAB urban studio, and West 8 (landscape design).

Image: Google / SITELAB Urban Studio

The project is the largest single project ever proposed for San Jose and is reported to cost more than $1 billion. The campus will include 4000 housing units, 1000 of which are allocated as affordable units in a state that needs 3.5 million housing units for all income levels over the next four years to meet demands. The scheme will also include 300 hotel rooms and 800 residences as short-term accommodation for corporate guests, ...

BIG, Kengo Kuma, and Studio Gang tapped for Westbank's San Jose masterplan

2021-05-06T11:42:00-04:00

Vancouver-based developer Westbank has unveiled plans for a collection of mixed-use projects in downtown San Jose, California. The development will feature six new or renovated buildings by leading architects including Kengo Kuma and Associates, Bjarke Ingels Group, Studio Gang, James K.M. Cheng Architects, and WRNS Studio. The buildings within the Silicon Valley initiative will combine to deliver 700 new residences and 5 million square feet of workspace, in what Westbank sees as an effort to “inspire the next generation of innovators by creating a healthier, more beautiful community.”

While blending a variety of architectural forms, the six projects are linked by an effort to respond to the climate crisis, with each building targeting deep carbon reductions for both operational and embodied carbon. “What we are proposing is a collection of net zero life cycle carbon buildings adjacent to inspiring residential,” says Westbank. “We propose workspace that merges nature and office spac...

SMAR Architecture Studio's design proposal wins Silicon Valley landmark competition

2021-03-26T20:40:00-04:00

After several rounds of jury reviews, Silicon Valley may have found its new landmark. The winning proposal is said to "symbolize people standing and working together." On March 25th, Fernando Jerez and Belén Pérez de Juan of SMAR Architecture Studio were announced as winners of the competition for their proposal "Breeze of Innovation."

In 2019 the San José Light Tower Corporation launched the Urban Confluence Silicon Valley competition. The international competition invited artists, architects, urban planners, landscape architects, students, designers, and anyone with a passion for place-making to submit ideas for creating an iconic landmark project to enhance community life in San José, California. In September 2020, the competition's jury announced its three finalists: "Breeze of Innovation" by SMAR Architecture Studio, "Welcome to Wonderland" by SCI-Arc M.Arch I student Rish Saito and the "Nebula Tower" by Qinrong Lui and Ruize Li.

Breeze of Innovation - "The Structure has big ...

Google reveals more details for Downtown West San Jose project

2020-10-12T14:24:00-04:00

Google unveiled on Wednesday its most detailed vision yet for a transit-oriented neighborhood in downtown San Jose [...] Google’s village would add 7.3 million square feet of offices, 4,000 homes, shops, restaurants, a hotel, 10 parks, cultural and entertainment hubs, and immersive and interactive educational elements near downtown San Jose’s Diridon train hub.

Google's ambitious 80-acre, transit-oriented Downtown West plan first appeared on Archinect in October 2019 and involves a number of prominent architecture and urban design firms, including Kohn Pedersen Fox (related), Heatherwick Studio, Grimshaw Architects, SHoP Architects, Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB), and SITELAB urban studio.

More details can be found on the Downtown West project website and San Jose's Planning Division.

3 competition finalists propose designs for a new landmark in Silicon Valley

2020-09-29T19:26:00-04:00

As the largest city in the Silicon Valley, San Jose yearned for a physical structure that would help "define the identity and spirit of this extraordinary region" as explained in the competition's brief. Inspired by the original San Jose Electric Light Tower that stood 1881 to 1915, the San José Light Tower Corporation led an open call inviting architects, landscape architects, urban planners, artists, students, etc. to submit proposal ideas for the city.

Part of the competition brief asked for a creative landmark design that encapsulates a net-zero approach, "dramatic lighting" incorporated into the design, and an "impressive physical presence." The competition's jury consisted of architects, planners, landscape architects such as Walter Hood of Hood Design Studio, Julia Czerniak, Associate Dean, and architecture professor Syracuse University, Jerry Van Eyck of !melk, among others. After launching the competition in 2019, 963 design ideas from 72 countries were submitted.

The jury...

Steinberg Hart tops out tallest towers in San Jose

2020-07-27T12:41:00-04:00

A development team that includes architects Steinberg Hart has topped out the first of two mixed-use residential towers in San Jose, California, part of a 630-unit development called MIRO that will rise as the city's tallest buildings.

Designed for Bayview Development Group and built by Suffolk Construction, the twin-towered development includes 50,000 square feet of amenity spaces, 15,000 square feet of retail spaces, and 10,000 square feet of offices.

View of the towers under construction.

The development includes 16 penthouse units as well as a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom residences. A statement announcing the project explains: "Residents are welcomed home through a street-level lobby experience that anchors the towers to the ground. The residences have been designed to have flexible spaces to create adaptable environments that each occupant is able to curate to their lifestyle."

For the project, contractor Suffolk Construction has deployed the plan-and-control building ...

Kohn Pedersen Fox breaks ground on terraced Silicon Valley office development

2020-05-18T15:44:00-04:00

Global architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) has broken ground on Platform 16, a new 1.2 million-square-foot office and commercial complex slated for a site next door to Google's forthcoming Transit-oriented village in Downtown San Jose, California.

According to a press release published by the firm, "Platform 16 offers access to outdoor space on each floor, and will include active pedestrian plazas, expansive floorplates, and 15-foot floor-to-floor heights, prioritizing the experiences of diverse occupants."

Overall and interior views of Platform 16. Renderings courtesy Plompmozes for KPF.

Additionally, the building's highly articulated facades are crafted to "create a sense of depth and texture with a faceted expression that modulates their scale and evokes an organic composition," a design that, according to the architects, reflects "a nod to the project’s sustainability" attributes. Those sustainability approaches add up, and the project is slated to outperform current AIA 2...

Google pushes supersized mixed-use headquarters designed by Heatherwick Studio in San Jose

2019-10-21T17:29:00-04:00

Google's recently released filing shows plans to build an 80-acre development that will encompass up to 7.3 million square feet of office space and 5,900 units of new housing in San Jose, California, reports CNBC.

This exceeds the initial proposal of 6.3 million square feet of office space and 5,000 housing units presented back in August.

According to CNBC, the company hopes to address its expanding workforce through the plan as to accommodate up to 25,000 employees. In addition to the office spaces, the Heatherwick Studio-designed project will also include around 15 acres of parks and green space, retail, and up to 1,100 hotel rooms. Google has been trying to get this city to expand its building height limits so it can build upward, instead of outward, reports CNBC.

San Jose embraces all-electric buildings, bans natural gas for new commercial construction

2019-09-19T12:30:00-04:00

[San Jose] became biggest city in the US to adopt all-electrification requirements on new residential buildings and gas bans on commercial construction. By early next year, developers may have to opt for electric appliances and other infrastructure in single-family homes, backyard cottages, low-rise buildings, apartments and condos. [...] the changes could cut greenhouse gas emissions in new buildings by up to 90 percent and save owners and tenants money on utility bills.

San Jose, California's third largest city, is implementing its Paris Accords-aligned Climate Smart San Jose plan as part of a municipally driven decarbonization effort. The plan relies on a series of "reach codes" to go above and beyond existing sustainability requirements.

San Francisco, San Jose set to join Berkeley in banning some new natural gas installations

2019-08-22T11:00:00-04:00

San Jose, Santa Rosa and Petaluma are among the cities looking into phasing out natural gas in some new buildings as a means of meeting climate goals. Heating and appliances like dryers and ranges would have to run on electricity instead. San Francisco is also set to consider legislation that would ban natural gas in new municipal buildings, of which there are few.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that several San Francisco Bay Area cities are looking to ban new natural gas installations in some types of upcoming construction projects.

The move follows a recent city council ordinance in nearby Berkeley that calls for eliminating natural gas-powered appliances in new residential construction there. The push to electrify home and commercial appliances and operations is part of a state-wide decarbonization effort aimed at eliminating carbon emissions in California by 2045.

The Silicon Valley needs a new landmark. Submit your ideas to for the Urban Confluence Silicon Valley Ideas Competition!

2019-08-12T13:15:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by the Urban Confluence Silicon Valley

UPDATE: Urban Confluence Silicon Valley has extended the entry deadline to July 1, 2020.

San José Light Tower Corporation invites visionaries, place-makers, architects, artists, designers, students, and dreamers to help define the identity and spirit of this extraordinary region, to reflect the breathless sense of possibility we all feel, and to propel that influence and hope into a world-class landmark.

We want to bring to built life the visceral feeling of vibrant progress that threads its way through our beloved environment, while at the same time protecting the existing landscape in the midst of urban sprawl.

Call for Entries!
The San José Light Tower Corporation announces the launch of Urban Confluence Silicon Valley (The Competition), an international open ideas competition. Artists, architects, urban planners, landscape architects, students, designers, engineers, and anyone with a passion for place-making is inv...

San Jose will be home to the largest co-housing building in the world set to feature "vertical neighborhoods"

2019-06-10T16:24:00-04:00

The co-living startup Starcity plans to build an 800-unit, 18-story “dorm for adults” to help affordably house Silicon Valley’s booming workforce. Dishotsky, the co-founder/CEO of the co-housing start-up Starcity, is now working to fill America’s housing-strapped cities with a scaled-up version of his childhood idyll.

Said to be the an 18-story "dorm for adults" the co-living startup Starcity aims to "redefining the meaning of home." The co-founder and CEO Jon Dishotsky is an advocate for co-living due to his upbringing in suburban Palo Alto. If asked about his upbringing, Dishotsky will share the story of growing up in a co-housing compound thanks to his Stanford professor dad who would often host students during the years. With this upbringing Dishotsky believes this model of creating housing developments with this method of co-living will help "fill America's housing-strapped cities with scaled up versions of his childhood idyll."

After launching in 2016, Dishotsky and his team have already broke ground on seven developments in Los Angeles and San Francisco. However, Starcity will be the largest. Aiming to attract renters with "Millennial-friendly amenities" individuals who decided to...

First Look at Steinberg Hart-designed Invicta, Towers Win AIA Silicon Valley People’s Choice Award

2018-10-30T19:41:00-04:00

Standing as a symbol of the innovation and inclusiveness of the tech industry, Invicta, a mixed-use development, is set to redefine the public face of San Jose. The three tower development, which is designed by California-based Steinberg Hart and developed by Knowhere Holdings, was recently honored by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Silicon Valley with the 2018 People’s Choice Award for is striking design.

courtesy Steinberg Hart

Serving as a gateway into the SoFA (South of First Area) Arts District, the project will redevelop the block bordered by South 1st and 2nd Streets, Williams Street and Reed Street. Known as a cultural and entertainment center for downtown San Jose, SoFA is home to numerous institutions, art galleries, and theatre companies, as well as several city festivals and events. Acting as a catalyst for expansion to the area, the design integrates public space within multiple residential towers. To activate the surrounding neighborho...

California drought sucks San Jose's Guadalupe river dry

2015-08-10T13:44:00-04:00

The river that runs through America's 10th-largest city has dried up, shriveling a source of civic pride that had welcomed back trout, salmon, beavers and other wildlife after years of restoration efforts. Over the past two months, large sections of the Guadalupe have become miles of cracked, arid gray riverbed. Fish and other wildlife are either missing or dead, casualties of California's relentless drought.

The Guadalupe River had undergone a massive revitalization effort in 2005, when the Army Corps of Engineers and the Santa Clara Valley Water District spent $350 million on a huge park and garden by the river, as part of a larger flood control project. Despite this very recent improvement in the riparian corridor, the drought has proved too much to keep it flowing – the district's reservoir levels are so low that water managers simply can't afford to release water from the tributaries into the river as frequently, now leading to the dry beds.

Waterways throughout the state are stressed by the drought, and any infrastructural adjustments to rivers will require a future-focused attention to drought conditions. Last week, news broke that Frank Gehry would be leading a master plan of the entire 52-mile stretch of the Los Angeles River, as well as a revitalization effort, but specific plans as related to the drought are not yet available.

With water in such limited supply, letting the Guada...

Corporate Design: An Energizer Versus an Eyesore

2014-04-14T15:37:00-04:00

The rivalry between the South Korean tech giants Samsung and LG isn't just played out over sales of smartphones and curved television screens. Both companies are building new American headquarters, Samsung in north San Jose, Calif.; LG in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. And on this score, the contest isn't close. Buildings are corporate symbols and advertisements, after all. Samsung comes across as a good citizen here; LG as a lousy neighbor.