Assets and Amenities

The heart of downtown San José is Plaza de Cesar Chavez. This beautifully designed two-acre park is perfect for strolling along tree-lined walkways, relaxing on park benches, splashing in sparkling fountains and attending a multitude of open air events. Plaza de Cesar Chavez is home to holiday activities, summer festivals, a concert series and many cause-oriented events that attract more than one million guests to downtown San José each year. The park is literally surrounded by the city’s largest cultural organizations: the Tech Museum of Innovation, the San José Museum of Art, the San José Repertory Theatre, the Center for Performing Arts, the Montgomery Theatre, and the Convention Center. These dynamic and vibrant cultural institutions invite residents and visitors alike to gather, exchange ideas, interact, and enjoy the splendid amenities in downtown San José.

San José has devoted significant money and energy into revitalizing its downtown area. An important part of that revitalization effort is the new Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. Built as a unique partnership between the City and San José State University, the library is the first in the nation to be co-owned and operated by a city and a university. Acknowledging this important “open” relationship between the campus and the downtown community, the building features two main entrances – one public entrance opening onto downtown streets, and one campus entrance opening to the San José State University quad, with a sweeping atrium acting as a grand promenade between the two.

San José considers the City's 19 branch libraries to be valuable community assets. Each one is carefully designed to offer both informal and formal public spaces where people of all ages, backgrounds and cultures can connect. San José’s libraries include informal seating areas to promote neighborhood conversation. Marketplace spaces give patrons a chance to shop and talk while children and caregiver spaces allow mothers to compare notes. Small group rooms allow students to study together and formal meeting spaces accommodate larger presentations and community forums. Unlike the traditional hushed, restrained city libraries of the past, San José’s libraries are vibrant, active learning and social centers, specifically designed to promote community connections.

One other very important downtown asset is the new San José City Hall, which began construction in August 2002. Designed by acclaimed architect Richard Meier & Partners, the new City Hall complex will be 535,000 square feet of office and public space that includes an 18-story tower, a magnificent domed rotunda, and an impressive public plaza. Built with state-of-the-art technology and sustainable design principles, the new City Hall will reflect the vitality, diversity and creativity of San José and provide residents with a city landmark and a sense of community pride.

Perhaps the most significant addition to the City's arts scene is the California Theatre, an ornate vaudeville and film house built in 1927. After five years of historically sensitive reconstruction, the theater re-opened with great fanfare in September 2004 as home to the San José Opera and Symphony Silicon Valley. The theater's First Street façade was meticulously restored to its former elegance, as was the elaborate interior of the building. This ambitious project resulted from a unique partnership between the San José Redevelopment Agency and the Packard Humanities Institute.

Another arts venue, the restored century-old Jose Theatre re-opened in November 2003 as home to the Improv Comedy Club and already has broken several attendance and revenue records for the national chain.

Yet another historic site, the grand Hotel Montgomery, fist completed in 1911, re-opened in July 2004 as the Montgomery Hotel feet south of its original location and painstakingly restored as one of the valley's premier boutique hotels. The building features striking Renaissance Revival architecture alongside contemporary amenities, including Paragon Restaurant and Bar, offering American brasserie cuisine complete with bocce ball courts.

In September 2003, the City celebrated the 10th anniversary of one of the finest sports and entertainment venues in the country-HP Pavilion at San José. More than 15 million people have passed through the glass entrances of this distinctive stainless steel structure, which sits on what was once the site of a car dealership. Now a downtown landmark, HP Pavilion has hosted more than 1,700 events - from memorable sports moments, like the NHL All-Star Game, the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments, to world-class performing artists, including Luciano Pavarotti and Paul McCartney.