The Bank of Italy Building is a 14- story,

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of ...

high-rise office building on the corner of South First Street and Santa Clara Street in

downtown San Jose Downtown San Jose is the central business district of San Jose, California, San Jose, California, United States. Downtown is one of the largest tech Business cluster, clusters in Silicon Valley, as well as the cultural and political center of Sa ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Built in 1925–26 as San Jose's first

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

, it has a red-tile

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

and a decorative cupola with a needle-like spire featuring a tall green light. It is a designated San Jose Historical Landmark and part of the

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

Historic District A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

History

Built in 1925–26 to a design by architect Henry A. Minton, the Bank of Italy Building is one of the oldest skyscrapers in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

. Until 1970, it was the tallest building between

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. It was the second home of the first San Jose branch of the

Bank of Italy The Bank of Italy (Italian language, Italian: ''Banca d'Italia'', , informally referred to as ''Bankitalia'') is the National central bank (Eurosystem), national central bank for Italy within the Eurosystem. It was the Italian central bank from ...

(which later became the

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...

). That branch, the first Bank of Italy branch outside San Francisco, was opened in 1909 in the Commercial and Savings Bank building further west on Santa Clara St. at the corner of Lightston Alley; a reconstruction is at History Park in San Jose.

Present

The building is a San Jose Historical Landmark, and in a

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

-designated Historic District. In the 21st century, its office space has housed many companies including law firms, tax services, and an AIDS advocacy group. The street-level retail space has housed a pawn shop and a nightclub. In December 2017, local real estate investors and developers Gary Dillabough and Jeff Arrillaga bought the Bank of Italy Building for $27.04 million; it had previously had several partial owners on a

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...

basis. The original plan was a gut rehabilitation to

net zero Global net-zero emissions is reached when greenhouse gas emissions and removals due to human activities are in balance. It is often called simply net zero. ''Emissions'' can refer to all greenhouse gases or only carbon dioxide (). Reaching net ze ...

standards to create small office spaces; following the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

-related downturn, a 2021 concept envisaged a

mixed-use Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions ...

conversion including retail and food and with the addition of garden terraces; in early 2024, work began on a residential conversion to include at least 100 apartments on the upper floors of the tower. In June 2024, it was announced that the building is to be the location of the Center for AI Excellence, an incubator for AI start-ups managed by Plug and Play Tech Center.

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline, Bank of Italy Building (San Jose, California)
NRHP Historic District Contributing Buildings - Old Bank of America Building
Waymarking
Image
National Park Service (archived fro
the original
on November 6, 2012) History of Santa Clara County, California Beaux-Arts architecture in California Mediterranean Revival architecture in California Skyscraper office buildings in San Jose, California

History

Present

See also

References

External links