Historic downtown San Jose building could pose issues for Jay Paul’s proposed mega campus
A mission by preservations to save what they call a historic architectural gem in downtown San Jose could create a significant and unexpected hurdle for the developer of a massive office campus proposed to replace the historic building.
Upon the request of the Preservation Action Council of San Jose, the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission unanimously decided to move forward this week with plans to designate the former Bank of California building — located at 170 Park Center Plaza — as a historic city landmark.
“This is an important moment for Brutalism in general and for this city,” Landmarks Commissioner Anthony Raynsford said during Wednesday night’s meeting. “In 20 years people might have a very different attitude toward this, just as we’ve seen with many other historic styles.”
Completed in 1973 as part of the city’s first urban redevelopment project, the former bank building is San Jose’s “best example” of Brutalist architecture — a style known for its blocky, rigid geometric shapes created from poured concrete, according to Juliet Arroyo, the city’s historic preservation officer.
The building’s architect, internationally renowned César Pelli, designed some of society’s most iconic structures, including San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower, the Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington D.C. and the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia — the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004.
But last year, veteran developer Jay Paul purchased the 8.1-acre Park Center Plaza site — now dubbed Cityview Plaza — and announced plans to demolish the entire 10-building site, including the former bank building. The project site is bounded by South Almaden Boulevard, West San Fernando Street, South Market Street, and Park Avenue.
In place of the current buildings, Jay Paul has submitted a proposal to construct a trio of 19-story glass towers — connected by bridges as the centerpiece of the project — that are estimated to accommodate 20,000 new employees in downtown San Jose.
The massive CityView Plaza redevelopment would total 3.79 million square feet, including 3.57 million square feet of offices, 65,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, and lobby areas totaling 24,000 square feet.
The project is expected to go before the city’s planning commission and city council for approval within the next couple of months. But the Preservation Action Council and Historic Landmarks Commission hope that a historic city landmark designation could force Developer Jay Paul to preserve the former bank building as a condition of the site’s redevelopment.
“This could be one way to preserve a part of that block that would be at least stuck in the time of the 1970s, which isn’t our city center’s beginning, but it would at least show we have other historic eras,” Vice Chair Paul Boehm said during the meeting.
Ben Leech, executive director of the Preservation Action Council, called it “shortsighted” for the developer failing to consider an option to build the proposed campus while simultaneously saving the building, which is located on only .5 acres of the 8.1-acre site.
“We see this as a real opportunity to make downtown San Jose — and the project site itself — an eclectic, vibrant, architectural mix of buildings from different eras,” Leech said in an interview. “We wouldn’t want to see that thrown away for what we see presented as an architectural monoculture.”
The city council is expected to consider both Jay Paul’s project and the proposed historic landmark designation in concert during the same meeting later this summer.
“Obviously it’s important to enter this into the timeline in the appropriate time so we can actually have a nomination be considered and save the building before the overall development is approved,” Commissioner Rachel Royer said.