Articles September 23, 2021

Structures Awards: Here’s how Innovative Technology Project honoree 200 Park is building up taller, faster, stronger and better

Source: Silicon Valley Business Journal

By Danny King – Contributor
Sep 23, 2021 Updated Sep 23, 2021, 5:45pm PDT

Editor’s note: This is one of the honorees in this year’s Structures real estate awards. 


Innovative Technology Project

200 Park

200 Park Ave., San Jose

As with a good athlete, the combination of strength and speed is an extremely valuable one for high-rise construction. Such will be the case for Jay Paul Co.’s 200 Park, a 19-story San Jose tower that began construction early last year.

Boasting 937,000 rentable square feet plus a 428,000-square-foot parking garage, the building will be the second in the United States — following Seattle’s recently completed Rainier Square skyscraper — to employ the so-called SpeedCore construction method. The modular process — developed by Seattle engineer Magnusson Klemencic Associates (MKA) and the Charles Pankow Foundation (MKA is also 200 Park’s structural engineer) — involves fabricating steel panels offsite, tying them together onsite, then filling the “sandwich” gap between them with concrete.

The process reduced Rainier Square’s core construction time by about a third to 22 months, and is expected to also cut 200 Park’s core construction time by about a third to 24 weeks. While not approaching the 58-story height of Rainier Square (downtown San Jose’s proximity to Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport limits the city’s building heights), 200 Park, will be among San Jose’s tallest buildings when completed in May 2023.

Key Facts

  • Cost: $600 million (estimated)
  • Status: Started January 2020, scheduled for completion May 2023.
  • Amenities: The property, which will be able to house as many as 4,400 workers, will feature 54,000-square-foot floorplates; a fitness center; outdoor terraces on each floor total 26,000 square feet; touchless air-circulation and fixtures; and 2,000 square feet of retail space.
  • Challenge: As with all recent local construction projects, 200 Park was impacted by Covid-related restrictions. General contractor Level 10 Construction implemented a QR code-based sign-in system as well as other social distancing measures and other touchless features to prevent on-site transmission of the virus.
  • Unique features: The property will include “light canyons” extending inward from the exterior that will filter daylight through the building’s interiors, as well as three levels of stacker parking directly above the lobby that can be converted to office space. Additionally, Jay Paul Co. is aiming for the building to achieve LEED Gold status for its environmentally friendly design.

Key Players

  • Developer: Jay Paul Co.
  • General contractor: Level 10 Construction
  • Structural engineer: Magnusson Klemencic Associates (MKA)
  • Architect: Gensler
  • Steel fabricator and erector: Schuff Steel

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