Adobe North Tower, San Jose

The Adobe North Tower—the fourth tower of Adobe’s global headquarters in San Jose, CA, will add capacity for approximately 4,000 incremental employees when complete. The new mixed-use space will sit on the northern side of the campus and will include retail and office space, as well as above-and below-ground parking. The new building will connect with the three existing Adobe offices via a private pedestrian sky bridge and will sit adjacent to State Route 87.  Construction of Adobe’s new tower is scheduled to be completed in 2022.

The new campus project includes a two-level underground parking structure that requires the use of a temporary tieback shoring system, as well as tower cranes, during construction. The shoring system involves tiebacks that encroach into the State’s right of way, which Caltrans approves only by exception. Due to site constraints, it was not feasible for Adobe’s crane contractor to operate the tower crane within the parameters of the State’s policy.

Adobe retained Gray-Bowen-Scott as their authorized agent to secure approvals from Caltrans to install temporary tiebacks and operate a tower crane in State right of way. Working in collaboration with Adobe’s project team, Gray-Bowen-Scott facilitated communication between Adobe and Caltrans, and effectively demonstrated that Adobe’s proposed encroachments in State right of way could be done in a manner to mitigate the State’s public safety concerns.  Our principals engaged Caltrans District and Headquarters decision makers, which resulted in Caltrans approving exceptions for Adobe’s project.  Caltrans was sensitive to Adobe’s schedule and issued encroachment permits for the tiebacks and tower crane in time for construction, keeping Adobe’s project on schedule.