Adobe opens Founders Tower in S.J. expansion

SAN JOSE >> Adobe's newly opened tower in downtown San Jose is more than a skyline landmark: The high-rise symbolizes the tech titan's push to bolster job growth and deepen its investments in the Bay Area's largest city.

The 18-story high-rise is the fourth office tower in Adobe's headquarters campus in downtown San Jose and is perched next to State Route 87 at 333 West San Fernando Street.

The high-rise is named Founders Tower after John Warnock and Charles “Chuck” Geschke, who in 1982 co-founded the company in the garage of Warnock's Los Altos home, adjacent to the Adobe Creek.

“Our Founders Tower is an amazing fourth addition to our downtown San Jose headquarters campus,” said Gloria Chen, Adobe's chief people officer and executive vice president of employee experience. “We are really excited about the building and the design.” The allelectric tower totals 1.25 million square feet, including the high-rise and a parking garage. The office portion totals 700,000 square feet.

When people walk into the building lobby, they are greeted by Adobe's museum on one side and a cafe on the other. The restaurant is slated to open after construction is complete on a bridge that will span West San Fernando Street and connect Founders Tower to the three office highrises on the other side of the road.

Founders Tower was crafted to accommodate big meetings with hundreds of participants, smaller gathering areas for teams, locations where just a few people could collaborate, or spots where people can work alone, either in enclosed booths or open seats.

“For Adobe, people have always been our greatest asset,” Chen said. “Our company is really about powering human creativity and powering human experiences. We have taken a real human-centered and experiential design approach to the whole building.”

They've taken the same approach with the museum that will immerse visitors in Adobe's past, present and future technologies.

“The museum is on the ground floor so we can immediately engage the public,” said Eric Kline, Adobe's global director of workplace experience. “You will see some of the original products and equipment. The museum is a combination of artifacts and storytelling.”

The new tower enables Adobe to double down on its downtown San Jose presence.

About 4,000 Adobe employees are expected to be able to work in the new tower — allowing Adobe to double its downtown workforce over time. Adobe eventually expects to employ about 7,000 people in downtown San Jose.

The largest distinct meeting area in the new tower is called Town Hall, an auditorium with seating to accommodate 500 to 600 people. The room can be left open for other workers to see as they pass by — or join in.

“That makes the meetings feel more organic,” Kline said.

San Jose-based Adobe's approach to small and large spaces didn't spring to life overnight. Even before the coronavirus pandemic forced the shutdown of countless office buildings and other workspaces, Adobe had begun to ponder how offices were starting to evolve.

“We were already looking at what are the work patterns of the future,” Chen said. “Even before COVID, we were recognizing that there were a lot of different kinds of workspaces.”

Founders Tower represents a flexible approach to office work, according to Adobe.

“It's not just floors and floors of desks and cubes,” Chen said. “It's everything from the large Town Hall space to focus and collaboration spaces, team neighborhoods and common community gathering grounds to accommodate all the different kinds of ways that people want to work.”

That approach is necessary because employees don't all have the same mindset for how they choose to approach the workday.

“Sometimes people want to come in for a focused time, and sometimes their home environment isn't the best place for focused work,” Chen said. “They want to be somewhere that's quiet with great internet facilities.”

Other major focal points in the tower are on the seventh floor, which features a cafe that totals 50,000 square feet — about the size of a medium-sized office building — as well as community spaces for employees. An array of cuisines from several parts of the globe are available, enabling the cafe to serve as a further gathering area.

“Food is the original form of social networking,” Kline said. “For as long as we know, people would frequently gather to share meals and enjoy food together. We know that food is very important in the process to get people together.”

The big cafe is “packed” during the lunch periods, an Adobe spokesperson said.

Adobe employees have already begun moving into the tower, whose 18 levels are opening gradually.

The new tower, in a further sign of the modern approach to the company's work areas, was built with an eye toward wide-open spaces. The floors in the new tower average about 60,000 square feet. The three towers in the older part of the Adobe campus average about 25,000 square feet.

Adobe's new high-rise also features the work of a number of artists from the city, an additional sign of the company's attempts to maintain — and strengthen — its already robust bonds with San Jose.

“We were among the first major tech companies to plant roots here in San Jose,” Chen said. “We are here for the long haul.”