One South and Centerra Close-Ups

Yesterday we had a time lapse of both One South and Centerra. Today we have two close up shots of the construction progress from Shawn Mathew. Both buildings are really coming along nicely. As a reminder, each of these has retail on the ground floor. Centerra has the potential of being an extension of the San Pedro Square Market. One South is a couple blocks away, but should do wonders to help activate Santa Clara Street while also contributing to what is happening in the San Pedro Square area.

Coming up on the horizon, the "sibling" Silvery Towers in the San Pedro Square area right behind the Fallon House and the Post Tower right next to the Gold building. By then we'll also have the new courthouse building, the SJSU student housing tower mentioned yesterday, the Pierce in SoFA, a couple projects around St. James, and who knows how many others. Downtown San Jose is going to look very different 3 years from now.

SJSU Starting Construction on $126M Student Housing Project!

We're going to have another crane in the air before long and this one will be on the SJSU campus. The University has broken ground on a student housing project with 850 beds. The building will be 10 floors, a bit shy of the 15 floor high-rise a stones-throw away.

This project is Phase 2 of the Campus Village project and will cost a cool $126M. Phase 1 was completed in 2005 and added a total of 2,275 beds.

As Nathan Donato-Weinstein mentions in the source link below, this will be a major step in moving SJSU from a commuter school to a more urban university. The building should be done by Summer 2016.

Source: SVBJ

One South and Centerra Time-lapse Photos

Check out the series of photos below taken from City Heights that range from the pre-SPSM days (first photo) to today. If you compare the first and last photos directly, it's amazing what a difference two buildings make.

Huge thanks to David Cheung for sending these in!

Veggielution's Annual Farm Dinner is on Auguest 23rd

Veggielution is an awesome community farm located in the middle of San Jose. Their annual event--Bounty of Heart's Delight--takes place August 23rd. The highlight is a five-course meal featuring local produce and wine, sourced and prepared by chef Affie Mahini from Cafe Pomegranate (great restaurant across from SJSU).

The even also includes live music, a decadent dessert, and even a Barn dance. Have a great time while supporting Veggielution's community programs! Full details of the dinner and ticket sales can be found on the website at www.veggielution.org/bohd (FYI, tickets are 60% tax-deductible).

Saturday Stats: San Jose Named Best City to Work In!

San Jose continues to get recognition for being a great city to work in. An analysis by Glassdoor ranks the San Jose metro as the #1 place in the country for employee satisfaction. Huge tech salaries and career opportunities were the key contributors to the ranking. This is also the second consecutive year where San Jose is placed at the top of the hill in this study.

San Francisco ranked #2, Washington DC was #3, and New York was miles away at #28. Make sure to watch the short video below put together by Glassdoor.

Sources: Glassdoor, SVBJ, Business Insider, Hat tip to Arturo Perez

 

Music in the Park's 26th Season Opens July 17 with the English Beat and Finish Ticket

SAN JOSE – Music in the Park shows this summer start with a July 17 concert featuring the English Beat, plus up-and-coming alternative rock bands Finish Ticket and The Holdup.

This will be Music in the Park's 26th season, and second season of gated admission.  Tickets purchased in advance cost just $10 for adults and free for children 12-under when accompanied by a supervising adult. Day-of-event price will be $20.  Tickets are now on sale at www.sjdowntown.com/musicinthepark.

The San Jose Downtown Association and Live 105.3 co-host the event from 5:30-9 p.m. at St. James Park starring new wave and ska originals The English Beat.  The Birmingham, England-based band has a 35-year history of success, with hits such as "Mirror in the Bathroom," "Save it for Later," "I Confess," "Stand Down Margaret," "Can’t Get Used To Losing You" and "Tears of a Clown."  Frontman Dave Wakeling retains his relevance as music innovator.  His "Crying Out Loud" album was released earlier in 2014.  Visit http://englishbeat.net/.
 
Finish Ticket is fresh off Live 105's BFD and success with their single, "Tranquilize," off their first major-label release, "Tear You Apart."  They will be coming from the East Coast and continuing their national tour right after making a special appearance at Music in the Park.  Visit http://finishticket.com.

Opening the show at 5:30 p.m. is The Holdup, a San Jose band touring clubs in Califiornia this summer.  Their song, "Fool's Gold Pt 1" is available on iTunes.  See https://www.facebook.com/theholdupmusic.

In addition, Music in the Park returns to Plaza de Cesar Chavez for a one of its concerts for the first time in two years.  On Aug. 21, Latin jazz legend Pete Escovedo and his Orchestra make their 19th appearance at Music in the Park, the show starting at 5:30pm. 2013 Grammy Award-winning Latin rock band La Santa Cecilia will open for the 82-year-old Escovedo.

Tickets are also available for $10 for adults and free for children 12-under at www.sjdowntown.com/musicinthepark.

Sourisseau News: 99 Notre Dame, the Birthplace of the Magnetic Disk Drive

How many people knew that the hard drive was invented in Downtown San Jose about a block away from where the San Pedro Square Market sits today? Check out the great 2-minute video below for a quick history lesson on how IBM developed RAMAC in San Jose, the first system for storing data on magnetic disks.


99 Notre Dame, the birthplace of the magnetic disk drive from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.

"Today's iPod-toting hipsters have no idea how much they owe to an unremarkable little building in downtown San Jose. It was there, at 99 Notre Dame Ave., nearly 50 years ago, that a small band of IBM engineers developed the RAMAC, the first system for storing data on magnetic disks.

The RAMAC was a big success for IBM. Big Blue made more than 1,000 of the machines over a five-year period, helping establish the company's dominance in mainframe computing. Today, just a few of the original RAMACs are known to exist. One sits outside Hoagland's office on the third floor of the engineering building at Santa Clara University.

The RAMAC's specifications are laughable by today's standards. Some hard drives are as small as a quarter and can store 100 billion bits of data per square inch, 50 million times that of the RAMAC. Hitachi, for example, recently announced the development of "Mikey,'' a one-inch hard drive weighing just 14 grams and able to hold up to 10 gigabytes of data.

The company is also testing a new method of aligning data bits on hard disks vertically instead of horizontally. The new orientation could allow companies to increase hard drive storage capacity tenfold, Munce said. "I think things like micro-drives will change the way we consume digital entertainment,'' he said. Hoagland's goal is to preserve the legacy of the hard-disk innovation in San Jose. As director of the Magnetic Disk Heritage Center, he has been pushing to create a museum at 99 Notre Dame Ave.

He may get his wish. The San Jose City Council recently passed a resolution promising to begin discussions around the idea. And a couple of city council members are due at tonight's ceremony, organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. "My dream,'' Hoagland said, "is if you think of the RAMAC, you think of Rey Johnson and you think of 99 Notre Dame Ave."

By Michael Bazeley
San Jose Mercury News

How Aggressive Should we be in Tackling Homelessness Downtown?

Today's post is more of an open discussion. One of our readers (hat-tip to Daniel) submitted an article about urban design tools being used to drive away the homeless in cities around the world such as London, Tokyo, and Montreal. These range from spikes in the ground to prevent the homeless from sleeping in certain locations to uncomfortable seats that discourage loitering beyond a quick rest.

After reading the article (link below), please let us know what you think. Are these cruel or do we need to move in this direction to reduce homelessness Downtown?

Source: The Atlantic