Wednesday Wishlist: smog-eating architecture

Italy has built a vertical forest to help combat rapidly escalating air pollution in the region. The 21,000 individual plats on the side of the building absorb carbon dioxide and generate oxygen, as well as help buffer some of Milan's "noise pollution."

Air pollution in San Jose may not be as bad as Los Angeles and is far better than some international cities like Beijing, but it is significant enough to cause serious health issues. It would be great if we can incorporate creative ideas into our future buildings that can help address the issue while at the same time making the architecture look more interesting. Building parks on top of buildings like Vancouver is another green way to help minimize our pollution.

Check out this "inhabitat" article for five more smog-eating designs that are reducing pollution around the world.

Source: inhabitat

Real Escape Game San Jose - The Crazy Last Will of Dr. Mad

San Jose's second mass-escape game takes place this weekend at the San Jose Woman's Club in Downtown San Jose. Teams of six will compete to virtually escape a room by solving a variety of puzzles and riddles. Each team has 60 minutes to escape, and even if you don't escape you will get a full walk-through at the end. These events are a ton of fun and you will be talking about the game well after it ends.

There are 13 different time-slots to choose from between Thursday the 19th to Sunday the 22nd. For more information and to book tickets, click here.

SJSU breaks ground on $10.2 million golf complex

Last week San Jose State University broke ground on its first on-campus training facility for golf. The world-class complex is across the street from Spartan Stadium and will be used for both men and women's golf teams. It will certainly help SJSU's student athletes get a leg up on the competition, especially since it can accommodate a large number of people. It will have hitting positions for 80 golfers, two large "tour-quality" putting greens, three bunkers, and two chipping greens.

The whole project was funded by private giving, including a $5 million gift from Rich and Cindy Thawly (alumni entrepreneurs and finance industry executives). The golf complex is expected to be complete by this December.

Source: SJSU

May is National Foster Care Month

There are over 6,000 children in foster care in the Bay Area and 60,000 in California. I think foster parenting is one of the most important way you can contribute to making the world a better place and have a tremendous impact on a child's life. This topic is very close to me since my mother participated in foster care for two decades and made the lives of dozens of children better.

Seneca Family of Agencies was founded 30 years ago in the Bay Area. The agency helps at-risk children and families in the region with a multitude of challenges. Below is a profile of one of their San Jose foster parents, Beatriz Alvarez. For more information on how you can get involved, please visit the Seneca Center website.

Beatriz Alvarez is excited about what's to come next in life. That's because she's in the process of becoming a certified foster parent, fulfilling a dream that has its roots in her early childhood. As the second youngest of 14 children, it was a struggle and a bit lonely, as ironic as it seems being in a big family. It's comparable to being lost in a crowd. It was during that time, at about 10 years old, that Beatriz remembers gravitating toward young people in need and learning about orphanages, a term less used now in the U.S., but often still used in many foreign countries. In fact, her mother had been raised in an orphanage in Mexico from age five to nine years old, and learning about it had an impact on Beatriz.

As Beatriz grew up she became involved in volunteer work with kids, the homeless and others in need. She also has a son, now 23 years old. Beatriz also became close to fiancé Marco Vazmendes and he learned of her interest in foster parenting. Without prompting, Marco did some research and learned about Seneca Family of Agencies in San Jose, an organization that was founded in the Bay Area more than 30 years ago to help children and families overcome life's biggest challenges. Not only did Marco learn about foster parenting and advise Beatriz, he enthusiastically joined her in the foster parenting certification program.

They have both enjoyed the process, which includes classes and a wide range of topics to help them learn all the ins and outs of being foster parents. Beatriz and Marco don't have a preference about fostering a boy or a girl, but their current thinking is a child in the age range of seven years old. They are excited about the joys that lie ahead, the opportunity to help a young person have a better life and how it will enrich their own lives.

For more information about foster parenting and foster-to-adoption call Seneca Family of Agencies at 877-380-5300, or attend Seneca's Community Foster Care Day event on Saturday, May 14, Noon-to-3pm at Mayfair Community Center, 2039 Kammerer Avenue, San Jose.

Upcoming PAC*SJ Events

The Preservation Action Council of San Jose (PAC*SJ) has several great events over the next couple months including a Lincoln Avenue Walking Tour in a few hours. For information and tickets, head over to the PAC*SJ Facebook page over here.

"Lincoln Avenue Walking Tour"
May 14th at 10am, Intersection of Lincoln and Minnesota

We'll be strolling Lincoln Avenue looking at the design of the commercial buildings and hearing stories about the town of Willow Glen and some of the colorful characters who lived and worked there.

If you don't order tickets in advance, arrive 10 minutes early to see if there are any spaces remaining. Tickets are $10 for PAC*SJ members and $15 for the general public. Package prices are available for the series of walks

"Renovation or Restoration - Making the Best of Your Old House."
June 28th at 7pm, The Firehouse at History Park San Jose

Preservationist, licensed house inspector, and DIY expert Ron Tanner will offer a slide show that illustrates several projects he and his wife undertook as they restored an 1897 Baltimore brownstone---condemned property, which was a wrecked former frat. house--and then restored an early Victorian farm house that hadn't been altered since 1959. Combining humor with history and his extensive knowledge of old houses, Ron will try to answer the question, Should you make your old house even "better" than it was originally?
Drive through the gate off Phelan Avenue to enter the park.
The event is free, but donations will be accepted to cover the refreshments.

"A Night in Old Havana"
July 14th at 6:30pm, San Jose Woman's Club (75 S. 11th St.)

Make your way through the palm trees to the San Jose Woman's Club –the scene of spicy and sultry Cuba-central, for a Night in Old Havana!

Enjoy a Cuba Libre, Mojito, or Rum Punch, or a Cuban Mocktail and nosh on Havana street food while listening to hot Cuban beats. Guys: Dust off your white fedora and don your guayabera shirt. Gals: 50s tropical cocktail or cuban whites are muy bonita! Yes, there will be a costume contest! Don't forget to snap a selfie in the Hot Havana Photo Booth.

At 8 p.m., John Pastier, formerly a Seattle design critic and the first architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times who now lives in Naglee Park, will present a slide show of Havana Architecture.
The evening is co-hosted by SJWC and Preservation Action Council * San Jose. Tickets $5 for SJWC and PAC* SJ members, $10 general. Suggested donation of $5 per cocktail to help cover event costs.

Equinix planning a significant San Jose data-center expansion

Santa Clara is definitely the hotspot in Silicon Valley for data centers. The city has their own electric utility which provides the least expensive and most reliable electricity in the area. However, the cost of Santa Clara real estate has gotten to the point where it is not always the obvious choice anymore. Equinix, a Redwood City-based data center giant, is doubling down in South San Jose to meet our ever-growing need for more capacity.

The company already has two data centers at Great Oaks Boulevard (SV1 and SV5) and have purchased 11.15 acres that formerly housed an IBM disk drive campus (there is some irony here). Equinix could build as much as 386,000 SQFT of data center space on the land.

Next door is another 65 acres of land already primed for development. A 150,000 SQFT Costco, 700+ homes, and retail will all likely join the new data center in the neighborhood.

Equinix also owns 18 acres of land at San Ignacio and Via del Oro over Highway 85 where they are planning to build three, two-story data centers that total a whopping 579,000 SQFT. Combined with their latest acquisition, Equinix could be adding nearly 1 million SQFT of data centers to South San Jose.

Source: SVBJ

LeEco chooses San Jose for their North American headquarters

LeEco is an innovate Chinese company that is involved a multitude of high-tech businesses. They make smartphones, smart TVs, and are now working on autonomous cars. They are also a leading provider of streaming content in China (and are sometimes referred to as the Netflix of China). San Jose just scored a big win as LeEco recently decided to locate their North American headquarters here.

The new office is located at 3553 North 1st Street, conveniently close to just about every other major tech company on the planet. The 80,000 SQFT building could be home to as many as 800 new employees by the end of the year. LeEco will primarily use the space for cutting-edge R&D in both artificial intelligence and autonomous driving, two markets that will help drive the next wave of tech innovation.

Below is a short video and photos courtesy of the SJSV Chamber of Commerce.

May 2016 Downtown Dimension Highlights

Here are my notes from the latest edition of Downtown Dimension:

• Several initiatives have been launched to make it easier to do business Downtown. These include speeding up the permitting process for small businesses, updating the signage code to allow for supergraphics and electronic billboards, improved WiFi, and transparent data on crime and traffic statistics.
• Must in the Park will welcome Los Lobos on June 24th and AC/DShe and The Killer Queens on July 14th. Two as of yet unannounced shows will take place on August 4th and August 25th. All shows begin at 5:30pm and tickets are $10-$15.
•  The Downtown San Jose Farmer's Market is now open every Friday along San Pedro Street around lunch time.
• Dine Downtown will kick off between June 10th through June 19th. Over 20 restaurants will feature three-course fixed priced dinners starting at $20 per person. $1 from each dinner will be donated to Martha's Kitchen.
• KT Urban is building the largest residential project to date in Downtown San Jose at 70 S. Almaden Ave. The two towers will be 23 and 24 floors tall and have a total of 723 units. The Greyhound bus station currently on the site will be moved to Diridon station.
• Sobrato is building a 190,000 SQFT office building at 353 Julian St.
• Bay Area Bike Share is added 13 more Bike Share stations to the Downtown area.
• Valley Health Center's 60,000 SQFT Downtown Clinic is opening in June and will offer the first Downtown urgent care services in a decade. The center will be open seven days a week from 8am-10pm.

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