Santa Clara Agrihood San Jose, California
Santa Clara Agrihood is the Bay Area’s first planned, designed, and built integrated agricultural and residential development, with the basic site organization and programming tenet of honoring the original use of the land and preserving its legacy. The site is thoughtfully organized to blend urban living with productive green spaces, creating a seamless connection between the past and the future. The design incorporates working farmland, community gardens, and open spaces that celebrate the site’s agricultural roots while fostering sustainability and local food production. Residential areas are arranged to enhance walkability, encourage social interaction, and provide access to shared green spaces, ensuring a vibrant, connected community that reflects the region’s agrarian heritage
Location
San Jose, California
Sector
Residential
Service
Architecture
Client
City of Santa Clara / The Core Companies
Status
Completed
Size
261,000 SF; 165 Affordable Units
The Agrihood integrates urban planning within a historically rooted agricultural layout, transforming the site into a mixed-use, mixed-income community. Organized along a traditional orchard grid, the design prioritizes pedestrian connectivity through a central linear axis, enhancing walkability and a cohesive public realm. To respect the surrounding neighborhood, the plan transitions in density from west to east. Lower-density townhomes along the western edge provide a buffer to existing single-family homes, gradually increasing to a higher-density residential core. The urban farm anchors the site’s most prominent corner, serving as both a symbolic and functional centerpiece, reinforcing Agrihood’s agricultural heritage and emphasizing education on climate justice, food security, and biodiversity.
Large courtyards and green spaces within multi-family buildings incorporate planter boxes with native and edible plants, supporting urban food production and biodiversity while mitigating urban heat. These open spaces foster social interaction, enhancing both ecological and community resilience.
Designed to complement Santa Clara’s public spaces, Agrihood balances density with green infrastructure, prioritizing sustainability, resource conservation, and local food production. The project exemplifies adaptive urban planning by integrating walkability, ecological sensitivity, and thoughtful land use, serving as a model for community-focused development that honors history while embracing a sustainable future.
Along with a 1.5 acre produce farm and community gathering center, this mixed-use development provides housing for people of various ages and incomes; promoting a true community environment. Developed out of a series of public meetings, the Agrihood an active, vibrant and attractive place to enhance and support the surrounding neighborhoods. Meant to connect to and complement other public spaces in Santa Clara, the resulting design features an innovative mix of open spaces and shared amenities. These include a plaza for farmer’s markets and dining, a community center with an exhibition space and kitchen for cooking classes, and a workshop with an adjacent rainwater recapture tank.
Offering a mixture of housing typologies, the 361 dwelling units are divided into townhouses, mixed-income apartments, and affordable senior and senior veteran housing. The apartment buildings are configured around large, open, landscaped courtyards above concrete parking podiums. Overall, the community is designed to support interaction, education, and farm to table living. Steinberg Hart is the architect for the overall project development, residential housing, and public amenity space.
Designed for economic sustainability by integrating affordable housing with a community-centered approach to food security, the project includes a dedicated affordable housing component, ensuring that low- and moderate-income residents have access to high-quality homes within a thriving, mixed-income community. Additionally, the on-site urban farm provides fresh, locally grown produce, reducing grocery costs and offering a healthy solution to food insecurity. By lowering housing and food expenses while promoting sustainability, Agrihood supports long-term economic resilience for residents and the broader community, demonstrating how thoughtful urban planning can create both financial and social benefits.
The nature of the farm itself fosters curiosity, evolving with the seasons and offering a variety of crops, colors, and textures throughout the year. Inspiring discovery and delight through its ever-changing farm and dynamic public spaces. Surrounding the farm, a multipurpose green area supports diverse activities, from farmers’ markets to educational workshops, encouraging engagement and exploration. Managed by an urban farming expert, the farm integrates water conservation strategies and soil treatments that enhance sustainability while showcasing innovative agricultural practices. This constant transformation ensures that residents and visitors always find something new to experience and enjoy.
The Agrihood enhances equity by creating a mixed-income, intergenerational community where people of diverse backgrounds can live, interact, and thrive. The project offers a range of housing options, including affordable units for low-income seniors and families, ensuring economic diversity and access to quality housing. Shared amenities, open green spaces, and a public urban farm foster social inclusion, breaking down economic and generational barriers. By integrating sustainable design, accessible public spaces, and fresh food access for all, Agrihood promotes equitable communities where residents—regardless of age or income—can benefit from a healthy, connected, and environmentally responsible way of living.
This development enhances well-being through urban planning and horticultural strategies. Its pedestrian-friendly layout fosters social interaction. Beyond its social benefits, the farm and planter gardens directly contributes to residents’ health by providing fresh, nutritious food and opportunities for physical activity through gardening. The integration of green spaces and agricultural elements also supports mental well-being, creating a calming, nature-rich environment, while indoors low-VOC paints and finishes improve indoor air quality, ensuring a healthier living environment. By integrating sustainable design, agriculture, and social connectivity, Agrihood strengthens the link between human health, community interaction, and environmental vitality.
Developed through extensive community input, the Agrihood is designed to foster social and climate justice by integrating sustainable living with food security initiatives. Blending open spaces with shared amenities such as farmers’ markets, educational kitchens, and rainwater recapture systems, the Agrihood actively addresses disparities in access to fresh food and green spaces. Beyond providing homes, the Agrihood fights food deserts by ensuring access to fresh, locally grown produce and reinforcing a farm-to-table lifestyle to residents and the community as a whole. This innovative development not only enhances biodiversity and climate resilience but also serves as a public resource, strengthening Santa Clara’s social fabric for generations to come.
Agrihood is designed to inspire discovery and delight through its ever-changing farm and dynamic public spaces. The nature of the farm itself fosters curiosity, evolving with the seasons and offering a variety of crops, colors, and textures throughout the year. Surrounding the farm, a multipurpose green area supports diverse activities, from farmers’ markets to educational workshops, encouraging engagement and exploration. Managed by an urban farming expert, the farm integrates water conservation strategies and soil treatments that enhance sustainability while showcasing innovative agricultural practices. This constant transformation ensures that residents and visitors always find something new to experience and enjoy.
Awards: 2019 Innovation in Green Community Planning Award, APA Northern California Section, 2019 Gold Nugget Award, PCBC, Silicon Valley Business Journal 2023 Structures Award.
