$100M art tower in San Jose could sway over Downtown

A swaying tower with a $100 million price tag that some hope will serve as a future symbol of San Jose may relocate from the SAP Center to the heart of Downtown.

San Jose Light Tower, the creator of the 300-foot-tall art project, now plans to build it in Plaza de César Chávez at 1 Paseo de San Antonio, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported.

The San Jose-based nonprofit moved the installation site amid a new partnership with the Chavez Family Vision and the Cesar Chavez Foundation, based in Keene, outside of Bakersfield. The groups want to honor the late civil rights and agricultural labor leader.

“Plaza de César Chávez is, and always has been, the center of our city,” Steve Borkenhagen, executive director of San Jose Light Tower, said in a statement. “We have a unique opportunity to build a public space in downtown San Jose that will function as the artistic soul of Silicon Valley.”

San Jose Light Tower wants to create a defining symbol for San Jose, much like the Gateway Arch is for St. Louis or the Eiffel Tower for Paris.

The project was inspired by a 237-foot-tall electric light tower that lit up San Jose’s Downtown each night from 1881 to 1915, when it was felled by wind.

Urban Confluence Silicon Valley, an affiliate of Light Tower, last year chose a winning design from hundreds of proposals from around the world. It was approved by the city last year.

The “Breeze of Innovation,” designed by Fer Jerez and Belén Pérez de Juan of SMAR Architecture Studio, will feature 500 white rods soaring up to 300 feet and swaying with the wind. It will include inside decks and cafes with views.

Its developer originally wanted to build it at Arena Green, a city park between SAP Center and the Guadalupe River in Downtown San Jose. The privately funded installation is expected to cost more than $100 million.

But putting the swaying tower close to the river and directly under the flight path to Mineta San Jose International Airport prompted Light Tower to look for a greener site.

It chose the northern edge of Plaza de César, at Market and San Fernando streets, where a stage hosts San Jose Jazz Summer Fest and Music in the Park concerts. The plaza, founded in 1797, was once home to San Jose City Hall.

— Dana Bartholomew

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