Project:

St. James Park Concept

City:
San Jose

Size:
N/A

Services:
Competition Entry

Client:
City of San Jose

Project Types:
Civic & Faith, Competition

Renderings:
fr-ee (Fernando Romero Enterprise)

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Historic Transformation

The City of San Jose’s desire to remake St James Park is part of its improvement plans to attract new development to the downtown area. Originally designated a park in 1885, the 6.8-acre site is the oldest park in the city and is deeply tied to the city’s history. TOPA Architecture partnered with !melk landscape architecture and fr-ee (Fernando Romero Enterprise) to enter the city’s competition for a new design. The design submitted was one of four shortlisted. It creates a series of lawns that resemble petals. The demarcated areas include a magnificent pavilion for community events, a grand lawn, a hill, a playground, and a contemplative lawn. The circulation path around these areas echo a modernized version of the park’s original design.

Relative link:
https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/12/how-to-remake-san-joses-st-james-park/

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What our customers are saying

Scott Knies

Our staff and partners enjoyed working with Ramiro and his team, finding them easy to communicate with, open to trying new things, and responsive to feedback from all of the project participants. Topa is a reliable, flexible, and community-minded firm that helped downtown San Jose realize a wonderful project.

Scott Knies, CEO
San Jose Downtown Association

Father Joe Kim

TOPA has gone way beyond my expectations in the quality, response, and most importantly execution. They are a team-minded group and have been great to work with contractors and clients alike. If you want to get anything done in a timely manner that involves permits, go with TOPA.

Father Joe Kim, Pastor
Saint John Vianney Parish + School

Adam Tafralis

Working with TOPA has been an excellent experience. TOPA puts a great level of detail into being a great partner throughout the entire process from start to finish. TOPA’s experienced team consistently worked with great success through the ever changing construction development, permitting and design stages.

Adam Tafralis, Business Development Specialist
South Bay Construction

Marie Millares

I had the pleasure of working with Topa Architecture on private and public property projects that serve surrounding communities. They had a mindful, informative and timely approach to navigating the City approvals process and worked with our team to fit within our budget and timeline. They patiently collaborated with us and our contractors to answer questions, resolve issues and transform our wish list into thoughtful spatial solutions for meaningful interaction in public space.

Marie Millares, Facility Director
Veggielution

Javier Canales

It has been an absolute pleasure working with Parisa, Geno, Jorge & Ramiro. We went to TOPA Architecture because of their reputation for time efficiency, great work quality, and excellent communication. Jorge and his team have helped us stay on schedule with our ongoing complex and fast-paced projects.

Javier Canales, Facilities Project Manager
Lucid Motors

Todd Baldwin

The team at TOPA Architecture has done a fantastic job on our campus. From ground up buildings to interior remodels, they have been an integral part of our on-going facility upgrades. The team is responsive to our needs and is available to be on-site whenever needed. We have very high standards for the facilities at our campuses and they were able to design the look and feel of our spaces to exceed those standards in every way.

Todd Baldwin, DIrector of Facilities
Valley Christian Schools