Downtown West Design Guidelines

Building resilient neighborhoods that capture the
essence of San José.

Role: Co-contributor with Sitelab Urban Studio.
Client: Google & Lendlease.

What does building with community engagement and co-creation really mean when building on a 80 acres site area with one of Silicon Valley’s biggest tech companies?

Stepping away from a campus or traditional financial district and moving towards a central social place — one that acknowledges both the physical and programmatic elements that make communities stronger in the face of the social challenges of our era.

  • 4,000 total housing units, 25% affordable (within DSAP)

  • 500k sf retail, cultural, arts, education, and active uses.

  • 15 ac of parks and open space, 4.25 ac of expanded riparian habitat.

  • 7.3 M sf office space, 1/2 of developable site for non-office and zero net new CO2 emissions.

+ 150 Community Meetings. + 10,000 Data points.

True co-creation isn't just about listening, it’s about accountability. After two years of deep engagement and active iteration, every community recommendation is now hard-coded into the design. This isn't just another development; it is a place built by, and specifically for, the people of San José.

Key issues we managed through project entitlements

A year in community engagement..

Leading internal workshops that focused on developing new ways of engagement which resulted in creating an interactive walking tour map using view-masters.

Developing engagement exercises to gather public response and data through questions and precedent feedback.

Creating public facing boards for project storytelling and detailed design process. 

Followed by rounds of data synthesis

To bring the community into this vision, we designed a walking tour that wove together San José’s past, present, and future. The tour highlighted historic features, documented existing conditions, and illustrated future possibilities.

The process began with an internal workshop rooted in creative collaboration, drawing inspiration from Gamestorming by James Macanufo and Sunni Brown. This sparked the idea of an unfolded map—a tool to guide participants through layers of history, design, and potential.

The map was developed in both digital and print formats, ensuring accessibility and legibility for a wide audience. By pairing research and storytelling with thoughtful graphic design, the walking tour made complex planning concepts tangible and helped ground Downtown West’s vision in the lived experience of San José’s streets and open spaces.

Design Guidelines

SITELAB headed the design of Downtown West, a framework created in partnership with the San José community after hundreds of hours of local engagement. The goal was to build a neighborhood that feels like a natural extension of the city rather than an isolated development.

Key Features of the Approved Plan:

  • Capacity: 4,000+ housing units and 7.3 million sq. ft. of office space.

  • Public Benefit: Over half the site is reserved for community use, retail, and 15 acres of green space.

  • Connectivity: 3.5 miles of upgraded bike infrastructure linking transit hubs to the Guadalupe River and Los Gatos Creek.

The City Council officially greenlit the project with a unanimous vote in May 2021.

Studies for Open Space Acreage Reallocation

Studying different scenarios of reallocating open space acreage to keep target as promised to City during entitlement.

Experts of the Design Guidelines Book

Studies for the Place Team - Rethinking the Central Utility Plant 

The process moved from internal workshops to a flexible design framework. I explored innovative 'wild card' concepts to link the Central Utility Plant (CUP) with tangible community assets and programming.