San Jose City Hall
Located at 200 East Santa Clara Street, San José, in California, the complex is large, with the 18 story tall tower totaling 550,000 square feet (46,000 m²) making it the tallest tower in San Jose. The mayor's office is located at the top floor of the tower, with the rotunda serving as an entrance and council chambers located in the third building.
The present city hall complex replaces the earlier city hall and civic center located on North First Street, which was used from 1958 to 2005. From 1889 to 1958 the city hall was located in what is now Plaza de Cesar Chavez in downtown San José.
The city hall and civic center, marks the new centerpiece of a decade-long redevelopment of the city’s seven-block civic district. The entire site includes a new performance hall, elementary school, and library.
In the nation’s center of green innovation, San José’s City Hall is one of the greenest buildings in town, achieving the top certification of LEED-EB Platinum from the U.S. Green Building Council. To date, no other City Hall in the United States has achieved LEED-EB Platinum, according to the U.S. Green Building Council.
A sweeping public plaza leads to the building’s main entrance on Santa Clara Street. Its focal point is the entry itself a glazed, domed volume that serves as a visible symbol of the city and government. This transparent lobby is large enough to accommodate public events such as speeches, concerts, and exhibitions.
Exterior finish materials include stone, metal panel, clear glass, and concrete. The thin building proportions are achieved with a unique dual structural system that utilises concrete shear walls as “bookends” to provide lateral strength. This system allows for narrow floor plates that combined with a west-facing brise soleil, support day lighting and natural ventilation throughout the interiors. Elements such as the sunscreen and the large entry rotunda give the building a landmark quality that befits its purpose as City Hall.
The Rotunda
The focal point of the plaza is the transparent domed rotunda serving as a visible symbol of the city government. The glass rotunda is reminiscent of traditional domes of important public buildings, despite its contemporary form and materials. The rotunda can accommodate large public events as it stands 108 feet high with a diameter of 100 feet. The rotunda is complemented to the east by the office tower, which houses city departments and the plaza level permit center. Complementing the rotunda on its east side is the office tower; on the west side is a three-story council wing, which houses the Council Chambers, public meeting rooms, retail spaces, and additional departmental offices.
Architecture
The architect was Richard Meier, designer of the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona, Spain and numerous other buildings around the world. The architectural style is most influenced by that of Le Corbusier. The US$ 382 million city hall has been somewhat controversial with the rotunda being compared to R2-D2 (fictional droid) but the building was designed to be environmentally friendly, making use of natural light, and providing shading with a "brise soleil" on the tower.
The main entrance faces Santa Clara Street through a sweeping public plaza. Central Concrete California provided the required 26,000 cubic yards of concrete. Upon completion, their concrete truck drivers made over 3,000 trips from the batch plant to the project site.
LEED Platinum Rating
By reaching the Platinum level, the city not only helps conserve resources and create a healthier environment for employees and visitors, but also saves substantially on cost through green building maintenance practices. City Hall’s certification adds more than half a million square feet toward the city’s goal of 50 million square feet of green buildings by 2022; it also contributes to achieving three other Green Vision goals of reducing energy use, achieving zero waste, and beneficially reusing wastewater.
San José’s City Council adopted its first green building policy for public sector buildings in 2001 with an update in 2007 that expanded requirements for facilities over 10,000 square feet to achieve LEED Silver at a minimum. While City Hall is the first existing city-owned building to be LEED certified, four other buildings already share green building distinction under USGBC’s rating system for new construction, and 18 others currently in design and construction phases are planned to be certified.
To certify City Hall, a team of employees from the Departments of General Services, Finance, Environmental Services, Information Technology, and Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services developed and implemented green practices in the following five areas: Energy conservation – City Hall is more energy efficient than 93 percent of similar facilities because it uses high efficiency lighting fixtures, natural in lieu of electric light, and energy efficient windows among other techniques.
Reduced water use – A combination of water conserving practices, ultra low-flow fixtures, and landscape irrigation with recycled water helped reduce water use at City Hall by 82 percent.
Waste reduction and diversion – Over 90 percent of the waste generated at City Hall (e.g., surplus furniture and office equipment, electronics, solid waste) is diverted from the landfill through aggressive recycling efforts. In addition, waste is further sorted at a special facility for material that can be composted.
Healthier indoor environment – Indoor air quality at City Hall is optimised by maximising the use of fresh air and high quality filters in the heating and air conditioning systems, and using only green cleaning products, equipment and practices in custodial duties.
Environmental purchasing – The City’s Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy (EP3) promotes purchases of green products across the board, whether it be cleaning products, office supplies, furniture, computers or building materials. The City of San José expects to save US$189 million over the next 50 years by consolidating city services and employees into one location, greatly minimising the cost of leasing space in multiple locations.
Professional Team
Architect
Richard Meier & Partners Architects
Consultants
Landscape: Patricia O’Brien Landscape Architecture
Lighting: Fisher Marantz Stone
Acoustical, a/v: Shen Milsom & Wilke; and Paoletti
General Contractor
Turner Devcon joint venture
Project architect:
Timothy Shea, AIA
Interiors:
Richard K. Irving
