700 Santana Row
San Jose’s Santana Row — widely acclaimed as a successful model of mixed-use development for its walkability, human-scale streetscape, and desirable amenities — has captured the attention of Silicon Valley’s workforce. People want to “be somewhere” while at work, with easy access to world-class shopping, entertainment, and culinary craft. In response, Westwood Development Partners / Federal Realty Investment Trust partnered with WRNS Studio to design two speculative workplace buildings, 500 Santana Row and 700 Santana Row (featured here). With 290,000 square-feet of offices and retail housed in an elegant, modern design, 700 Santana Row evolves the formerly referential character of the district while reimaging it as a holistic neighborhood for live, work, and play.
With a focus on enhancing the public realm, 700 Santana Row presents a sweeping façade that captures energy of the shopping arcards and creates a gracious elliptical plaza at the terminus of Santana Row’s main axis. A second curve at the building’s upper portion bends southeast, creating a sense of elegant tension between the surfaces, as if a sheet of paper has been ripped and gently pulled in opposite directions. The curved façades are expressed as a shimmering metal “screen.” with individual pieces oriented at a series of angles to catch the sun and produce a shifting, dynamic effect. A breezeway burrows through the building at the ground floor, creating a visual connection from the public plaza to the oblong office lobby and through to the freestanding parking garage to the East. Diaphanous in appearance, the design of the curtainwall softens the eight-story structure and permits abundant natural light into the loft-like interiors.
Designed to attract mid-sized companies looking for campus-like amenities, 700 Santana Row embraces ground floor retail and adds a large, planted terrace at the 6th floor, complete with a trellis as an amenity for office tenants. A civic plaza within a commercial context, the community space sets the stage for future programming and adds to the list of amenities in the neighborhood. As was the case with 500 Santana Row, this project was leased by a successful technology firm prior to construction.
Targeting LEED Gold, sustainable features include cool roofs, water efficient landscaping and irrigation design, and use of recycled materials.