San Jose Okays Apartment Tower Studded with Trees
The Orchard, 30-story mixed-use building, will have fruit trees on every balcony.
If you don’t know the way to San Jose, look for the building with the flying trees. Those aren’t lyrics of Dionne Warwick’s famous song, but it’s a good description of a mixed-use project just approved in the heart of Silicon Valley.
The City of San Jose Planning Commission has approved a 30-story mixed-use apartment tower for a site at 409 South 2nd St. in Downtown San Jose.
Known as The Orchard Residences, the 294-foot, 607K SF residential building will include 8.2K SF of ground-floor retail and a 104K SF underground parking garage. The project is being developed by Westbank.
James K.M. Cheng Architects, which is designing the building, says it took inspiration from San Jose’s agricultural heritage when it included the most unique element of the project: the designer is planning to put 312 fruit trees on balconies throughout the structure.
“San Jose used to be the agricultural capital of California; it was full of orchards. Our façade came directly from that. We would like to bring the history of orchards back both as a historic recall as well as sustainable,” the architects said, in a statement to SF Yimby.
“The façade is made up of fruit trees that will shade the building, thus reducing air-conditioning loads, it will provide oxygen through photosynthesis, [and] it will provide food,” the designers said.
The other unique design feature at The Orchard will be a “folded plate” roof, which the architects cite as a traditional component of mid-century California residential architecture
Unit sizes will vary from studios to three bedrooms. For residents, the ground floor will include a landscaped private courtyard, connecting retail and a restaurant to a staffed lobby. A co-working space will be on the second floor, connected to the lobby with a spiral staircase.
The rooftop amenity deck at The Orchard will include a fitness center and event space. There will be a pool extending from inside the party room to the outdoor terrace, with a sliding wall in between.
Facade materials will include grey granite stone, precast concrete panels, steel roofing and glazed curtain-wall glass. The project takes inspiration from the city’s agricultural history, proposing 312 fruit trees across the various balconies.