Arya Apartments provides 87 affordable apartments in a gateway building to downtown San Jose’s SoFA (South of First Area) Arts and Entertainment District. The 95,000-square-foot project’s design, amenities, and outreach strategies were developed to serve San Jose’s working artist community.

The building’s amenities include a variety of common areas, workspaces, multipurpose rooms, and a landscaped courtyard. Working with Local Color, a San Jose arts organization, the project will also include a community flex space located at street level that can serve as a classroom, a gallery, and/or performance space for local artists and nonprofits and be accessible to residents and neighbors.

The colorful exterior design expresses the project’s location as a transition point between downtown high-rises and an adjacent historic single-family neighborhood. A robust community engagement process resulted in unanimous Planning Commission approval without opposition. 

This project used the State Density Bonus Program to increase the number of apartments, and used the State affordable housing streamlined approval process to fast-track entitlements. 

LMSA design team: Richard Stacy, Vanna Whitney, Sara Sepandar, Yung Chang, Enrique Sanchez, Eddie Kopleson, Kirk Nelson, Howie Russel, and LJ Bryan