Adaptive Reuse Brings New Vibrancy to Silicon Valley’s State Street Market

The adaptive reuse of buildings may be one of the most impactful things we can do for the environment. Reimagining, reusing, and renovating a building is estimated to save between 50-75% of embodied carbon emissions compared with new construction. But beyond the environmental impact, we believe the most successful adaptive reuse projects recognize and reactivate the intrinsic value that a building’s previous life has played for various experiences and memories for countless community members and generations.

Adaptive reuse was a critical sustainable design strategy in designing the new State Street Market in Los Altos, California, transforming what once was a hodgepodge of buildings without a unified purpose into a community hub that fosters connectivity and belonging downtown.

The concept was born out of Los Altos Community Investments (LACI) principal Anne Wojcicki’s inspiration to create a community space that captures the authentic, quirky, and local vibrancy of the downtown Farmer’s Market.

The true impact of this adaptive reuse project is not just in the sensible unification of the container, but in the creation of a series of compelling experiences that bring added vitality to the downtown community. With a deliberate focus on variety, adaptability, and identity, State Street Market provides a comfortable food & beverage destination for gathering and connectivity as we emerge from the pandemic.

Reimagining an iconic building as a community cultivator

Gensler partnered with LACI to transform the existing building at 160-170 State Street, which previously presented an uninviting street-front of vacant retail spaces, into a community gathering place in the heart of downtown. Initially designed as a single-story Purity Stores food market in the 1950s with mid-century modern influenced architecture, the building had evolved over time into a pair of two-story, pseudo-California Mission buildings with an underutilized multi-tenant mix of small, outdated offices and retail spaces. The iconic, vaulted double-height dome of the original Purity store had been encapsulated and infilled within the second story addition.