Local developer, Urban Community and its International partner Westbank are set to commence construction work on the Park Habitat Office tower, an environmentally-friendly 20-story building that will replace the ageing Parkside Hall, located at 180 Park Avenue, in downtown San Jose, California.
According to the developers, all of the city permits needed to begin clearing the development site have been acquired and the site preparation will commence with excavating the ground to create a huge hole needed for the tower’s base.
The next step in the construction phase will be marked by the demolition of Parkside Hall, the first convention centre to be built in San Jose.
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Features of the Park Habitat Office tower project
The Park Habitat Office tower will provide 1.2 million square feet of office spaces and retail spaces on its ground floor for restaurants and shops, occupying up to 10,103 Square feet. In addition, the project will also provide 61,000 square feet of expansion space for its neighbour, the Tech Museum, to which it will be connected.
The Park Habitat Office tower will rise to the height of 292 feet and has been planned with a unique concept, which incorporates environmentally friendly and health-oriented gardens in an open space within the tower. The developers refer to this open-air atrium as the Green Lung.Â
Based on designs by the Japanese architectural firm, Kengo Kuma & Associates, the office tower will feature several gardens and terraces, with some protective layering consisting of louvres and planter modules, which will help in reducing the direct impact of sunlight and offer passive climate control. It will also include a full-height courtyard, which allows for the penetration of daylight and natural ventilation into the insides of the building.Â
According to Kuma, the main idea behind the designs of the Park Habitat Office tower was to enable humans to get closer to nature; a unique building concept which is the complete opposite of the 20th-century office buildings, intended to separate humans from nature. The firm also expects to make this tower into an innovative new addition to the city’s skyline.
Although the cost of construction was not released by the developers, a proposed delivery date of September 2024 was given for the Park Habitat Office tower project. The San Francisco-based Build Group was selected as the general contractor for the project.