Overview
A 175,000-square-foot workplace puts digital memory in motion, translating a confidential technology client’s legacy into a human-centered campus for technical work and connection.
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Opportunity
In San Jose, a technology pioneer needed a next-generation campus that could strengthen culture, support the complexity of its work, and embrace its site’s roots.
As technology companies face growing pressure to build campuses that attract talent and foster community, the stakes in Silicon Valley are especially high. This confidential tech company, known for its pioneering data and memory technology, needed to transform a historically agrarian site into a modern engineering campus — one that honored the company’s legacy, supported complex technical work, and felt unmistakably human.
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Why This Matters
01
Attracting Technical Talent
The campus needed to differentiate this confidential company in a competitive market, functioning as a hub that equally supported its rigorous engineering work and the needs of the modern workforce.
02
Honoring Past and Future
The transformed site had to physically express the company’s pioneering contributions to data and memory technology while positioning it for what comes next.
03
Making Work Human
Human-scaled places designed for movement, spontaneous connection, and belonging would be key to making wellness and community-building essential parts of every workday.
FPO Quote
Solution
A connected workplace ecosystem is designed as part of a walkable landscape where movement, identity, and shared experience ignite innovation.
Gensler designed a 175,000-square-foot engineering workplace anchored by two buildings: an engineering building and Orchard Commons, a centralized amenity hub. The engineering building’s layered, reflective façade draws from the company’s data and memory technology, while choreographed pathways promote movement and spontaneous connection. Orchard Commons features a large-scale, market-style dining hall and reinterprets the barn through exposed mass timber. Indoor-outdoor spaces extend into orchard-inspired courtyards with shaded gathering zones. Employees can move seamlessly between focused work, chance encounters, shared meals, and outdoor gathering spaces, strengthening both productivity and culture.
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Related Content
175K
Engineering Workplace Size · sqft
2
Buildings
Impact
A human-centered innovation ecosystem that transforms engineering work into a connected, community-driven, place-based experience.
A typical engineering workday is reimagined by making movement a natural part of the day and chance encounters a regular occurrence.
What Changed Because of This
01
Workplace Experience
An intentional focus on movement supports spontaneous connection across engineering, meeting, collaboration, and amenity environments.
02
Campus Identity
The high-performance engineering building links past and future by drawing design inspiration from the company’s data and memory technology.
03
Daily Belonging
From Orchard Commons to indoor-outdoor spaces across campus, warm, human-scaled environments are anchored in wellness and help build a genuine sense of inclusion.
Recognition
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Team
Project Leadership
FAQ
Where is this project located?
What is the main design goal?
How does the campus draw on a site with agrarian roots?
What are the core design programs?
Why are the campus pathways important?
Related Content
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