The Carlysle

The Carlysle is a 21-story high-rise in Downtown San Jose that totals 558,907 SF of residential and office mixed-use space. The project is located two blocks from Google’s new 80-acre San Jose campus and will provide 290 apartments located on 12 floors, 150,000 SF of office space on five floors, nearly 8,000 SF of ground floor retail, parking, and community open space.

The planning and site design of the Carlysle incorporates a range of public and private areas and features an engaging, safe, and diverse walking environment with ease of transition to surrounding traffic and public transportation.

K+W planned and designed all the utility relocations and street improvements along Notre Dame Avenue, North Almaden Boulevard, and Carlysle Street. The lengthy funding process resulted in the need to re-address the existing infrastructure requiring close coordination with key approval agencies including the San Jose Water Company (SJWC) to redesign the utility infrastructure. As an independent utility owning the public roads, the SJWC normally completes the design and final plan check on projects within their jurisdiction. As a qualified subconsultant utilizing Applicant Design, K+W was able to complete the initial design and expedite the approvals working in close collaboration with the SJWC.

The overall site design also required an updated approach to accommodate the client’s vision of widening the corner areas to provide expansive sidewalks as ‘anchors’ that visually emphasize the main atrium entry. The corner sidewalks were widened to create a larger footprint for expanded pedestrian travel and to allow for the installation of pedestal ‘Victorian’ lighting features that provided architectural highlights emphasizing the main entry. This, along with the need to accommodate a re-design of the existing utility infrastructure, provided the K+W team with unique planning and design challenges across a site with a 3’ grade change located within an urban downtown core. Through a highly collaborative design process K+W worked closely with public oversight agencies including the San Jose Water Company, San Jose Public Works, San Jose Fire Department, San Jose Planning Department, San Jose Environmental Services, and San Jose Parks + Recreation to successfully deliver the final design and approvals for the project.

Sustainable site features include 120+ Kw of solar panels and a stormwater treatment design that utilized a media filtration system because of the limited space of the site. As is industry standard, traditional bioretention is not feasible in high-rise developments where space is a premium.

As a Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ) project, the Carlysle is an important part of the revitalization of downtown San Jose. Construction began in early 2021 and is scheduled for completion in 2023.