The developer Eden Housing is celebrating the groundbreaking for one of its most recent affordable housing developments located at 700 East Saint John Street in San Jose. Several notable figures will be in attendance for the ceremony, including US Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, and CA State Treasurer Fiona Ma. The ceremony celebrates the successful progress of a project expected to deliver 68 new units of affordable housing to the area.
48 of the apartments will be available to households earning up to 60% of the area median income. Meanwhile, twenty units will be reserved as Permanent Supportive Housing for seniors exiting homelessness. Residents occupying these units will have access to standard amenities such as a lobby, mail room, building offices, and laundry room. They will also have access to site-specific offerings such as a large community room with kitchen, a food pantry, and recreation spaces on each floor.
Architects FORA is responsible for the building’s design. It’s final layout is of a four-story L-shaped building with ground-level podium parking that incorporates the adaptive reuse of the neighboring Building 800 site, a historic site which housed IBM’s first West Coast offices. The newly constructed building’s façade elements are designed to smoothly transition from the preserved Building 800’s exterior, using unfinished cement paneling on the lower building levels before transitioning to darker brown and tan panels higher up. Painted mural work will add visual detail in places along the building’s exterior.
700 East Saint John Street Rear Rendering image by Architects FORA
The 2.8-acre site is part of the East Santa Clara Master Plan, which is jointly led by The Santa Clara County Housing Authority and the County of Santa Clara. The Core Companies and Eden Housing are each developing parts of the site. Once fully completed, both parts will help integrate the location as a high-density, but community-oriented residential area, with nearby access to Downtown San Jose, San Jose State University, and a variety of nearby neighborhood amenities.
700 East Stain John Street Site Location, image via ArcGIS Online
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That’s a pretty nifty project, and it just shows to go ya’ that you don’t actually need to demolish historic buildings to provide more housing.