IBM Building 25 Destroyed by Fire
Fire destroyed another historic building in San José, Building 25 on the IBM campus in southern San José. The building was the center of a controversy pitting preservationists against Lowe's who had planned a new store on the site, and wanted to demolish Building 25. Building 25 was designed in 1957 by architect John Bolles and was arguably the first of the modern low rise office buildings in San José. It featured floor to ceiling windows, a design motif reminiscent of a punch card, and a horseshoe pit. The building housed advanced development and research on disk drives. The building was a source of pride for IBM. In 1959 CEO Thomas Watson Jr. escorted Soviet Premier Nikta Khrushchev on a tour of the building. Reportedly Khrushchev was more impressed by the cafeteria than the building and research happening there. IBM vacated the building in 1996.
Fires destroy historic buildings in San José
Posted by
on
January 19, 2008
Two fires have destroyed historic buildings in central San
José. The first fire
destroyed the Houghton-Donner Mansion on July 19, 2007. You can see more on
the NBC11
Website.
The Victorian masterpiece was built in 1881. It was the home to early
San José mayor Sherman Houghton and his wife, Eliza Donner
Houghton, a survivor of the Donner Party tragedy. The house had been
noted by the Landmarks Commission as "the most historic building in San
José".
The local preservation community had helped convince the City to spare
the building from
a risky move or even destruction, as part of construction of parking
for the new City Hall.
The building was unoccupied, and there were no injuries in the fire,
but an important piece of San José's
historic fabric is gone. The second fire on January 17, 2008 destroyed the Porter Stock building, a two-story masonry structure, designed by architect J. Lenzen and built in 1867. Here's the slide show from NBC11. The building was undergoing renovation with funding from the Redevelopment Agency. It had been red-tagged after the Loma Prieta earthquake, as unreinforced masonry buildings from that era are extremely dangerous in earthquakes. This is also a tragic loss.
SIA 2008
Posted by
on
March 5, 2007
The Chapter will be hosting the 2008 SIA National Conference from May
29 through June 1, 2008. Though centered in San José, CA,
the Conference tours will take participants to sites all over the Bay
Area. A separate
area of the site has been set up for the conference, and
there are forum topics to collect your inputs and share them. We
welcome your participation in the planning process.