Westbank Corp., one of North America’s leading mixed-use real estate development companies, retained Cornerstone Earth Group, Inc. to assist in evaluating the quality of soil slated for excavation from the building’s existing basement. Built in 1925, the 14-story Bank of Italy Building is an historic downtown San Jose landmark, and one of the oldest towers in Silicon Valley. Designed by H. A. Minton, it was the tallest building between San Francisco and Los Angeles until the 1970’s.
Westbank is renovating the building with a vision for a mix of workspace, retail, and cultural space, including construction of an attached ‘stair tower’ serving as an exterior egress stair core with a green ‘living’ wall.