Parklike deck eyed for San Jose garage
Design firm wants to bring purpose to under-used space
SAN JOSE >> An “immersive community” of gathering areas, performance venues, and food centers could sprout atop a downtown San Jose parking garage, under a concept sketched out by a top architectural and design firm.
The roof deck of San Pedro Square Garage could become a “people deck” and create new centers of activity in downtown San Jose, said executives with Gensler, the design firm that crafted the idea.
“This is a large underutilized parking deck and the idea is to turn it into a people deck,” said Peter Weingarten, a principal and managing director with Gensler’s San Jose office.
The multi-level parking garage fronts on North San Pedro Street, West St. John Street, and North Market Street and is adjacent to the San Pedro Square restaurant, bar, entertainment, and nightlife area.
“This is potentially a really fun venue to activate,” said Scott Knies, executive director of the San Jose Downtown Association. “It’s great because it’s open on all sides. But you do have some buildings nearby that help frame the site.”
The garage serves a useful function as a parking spot for busy parts of downtown San Jose. Yet on three of its sides, the garage simply presents concrete walls that also divide San Pedro Square from the key thoroughfare of Market Street.
“We want to change this
from being a barrier to being a bridge between Market Street and San Pedro Square,” Weingarten said. “The idea is to transform this space and give it a greater purpose and create greater connectivity.”
The garage could serve as a new “urban bridge” in downtown San Jose, Gensler stated in a 32page presentation that details its concepts and ideas for a reimagined roof deck.
At present the roof deck is already being used for an array of activities, especially with the dearth of parking trips throughout the Bay Area and the South Bay as one of the side effects of coronavirus-linked business shutdowns.
Photoshoots, meetings, filming, dancing, exercising, biking, and just hanging out are among the popular current activities for the garage roof deck, according to Gensler.
A ground-floor section of the San Pedro Square parking garage has already been enlivened through a Gensler-crafted project.
About two years ago, Gensler was the driving force behind “Moment,” an effort that created four popup retailers in parking spaces on the San Pedro Square side of the garage.
The rooftop endeavor is being dubbed “Moment 2.0” by Gensler.
People would be able to create, socialize, shelter, unwind, stroll, interact, picnic, dog walk, play, and exercise on the rooftop.
“There has to be a payoff for people when they get to the roof, so we could introduce a lot of meaningful and diverse programs, we could have food trucks that would create an elevated food court,” Weingarten said. “You could have a little theater up there.”
The activated roof would also feature varied elevations in the form of tiny hills or dips.
“The changes in topography can bring excitement and more interest,” Weingarten said. “That also allows us to create outdoor rooms that range from quiet to more of a ruckus.”
It will cost money to pull this off, so Gensler is hoping to whip up some corporate interest to help finance the development of the new roof deck as well as bankroll ongoing and permanent activities.
This concept also fits into the widening effort to activate blocks and sections of downtown San Jose little by little.
“We totally believe in the future of downtown San Jose,” Weingarten said. “There are amazing destinations that already exist and that are being planned downtown. But there are also uncomfortable gaps between the areas of activity. The site of this garage fills in one of those gaps very nicely. A revitalized rooftop can be really exciting.”
As San Jose and the rest of the Bay Area begins to crawl out of the government-ordered business shutdowns that have deadened the economy, these kinds of active areas will not only be helpful, they may be essential.
“This will take a parking deck and make it a gathering space,” Knies said. “We need to get folks back to populate the businesses downtown. We can’t wait to be doing events again. We’re going to eventually get back to the roaring 20s.”