7th and Taylor
138 For Sale Condominiums
11,400 S.F. Office/Retail
330 E. Taylor Street, San Jose, CA
Start Date: TBA
Estimated Completion Date: TBA
The Japantown in San Jose is one of the three Japantowns that still remain within the U.S. continent. To preserve its cultural value becomes an important task for not only those residing in that area, but also those proposing new developments there.
ROEM is one of the developers who proudly take on that challenge. The selected site is a small, triangular urban infill location. Bounded by two busy arterial and a railroad track, this 1.9-acre site accommodates 126 units of affordable condominiums and 7,500 S.F. of office/retail space. The designers at ROEM innovatively organized the buildings to maximize the feeling of openness within this tight parcel. Created are two exciting open spaces of distinctive characters. The first one is a public plaza along the pedestrian-oriented edge to attract the public as well as the local office workers. It’s a place for them to enjoy lunch and meet friends. The second space is a private garden secluded well within the residential complex, offering the residents a quiet area for family gathering and passive activities.
The office/retail building is deliberately placed at the corner of N. Seventh Street and N. Taylor Street, where vehicular and foot traffic are heavy. Adding such commercial space to the community helps boost pedestrian activity along Taylor, a strategy that fit perfectly into the City’s revitalization plan for the area. Street-life is thereby enriched.
One of the few ways to preserve, and even enhance, the cultural values of the existing Japantown is to continue its architectural and landscape influence on that region. Traditional Japanese architectural forms and exterior details are widely used and re-interpreted throughout the new buildings here in this project. Both the public plaza and the private garden pick up the Japanese flavor as well, complementing and extending the existing street furniture and landscape themes deep into the site. In short, Japantown in San Jose has been successfully stretched an additional block within that neighborhood.