The Fox Building, located at 40 North 4th Street, was an especially important example of commercial use of a Mission Revival building. Designed by Louis Lenzen, of the important Lenzen family of San Jose architects, it was the location of a metal salvage company that pioneered the recycling of scrap metal in San Jose, and played an important role in the Jewish community.
The site was home to the Fox-Markovits Company from 1894 to 1947. Located near the heart of the Downtown, the company was one of San Jose's pioneer metals dealers, salvaging scrap metal and related industrial materials decades before the word “recycling” came into common use.
Rebuilt in 1919, this three-story Mission Revival style industrial building is one of San Jose's most attractive light industrial structures. Just after World War I, the company commissioned architect Louis Lenzen, son of pioneer architect Theodore Lenzen, to update their building. The structure served for many years until the expanding company moved their operations to a larger site on Old Oakland Road.
The parking structure for the new City Hall first threatened the historic Houghton Donner House but after public outcry the site was moved south to save the house. The new site plan now called for demolition of the Fox Markovitz building. Although PAC*SJ and others proposed several alternatives to meet the City's parking needs, the proposals were not made part of the final plan, violating the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
The Preservation Action Council of San Jose filed and won a lawsuit against the City of San Jose regarding its approval of the Civic Plaza Parking Garage project asserting that the EIR inadequately examined feasible alternatives to prevent demolition of this candidate City Landmark.
Judge Nichols' ruled in our favor requiring the City to go back and conduct a proper environmental analysis for this project. The City could have redesigned the project to save the Fox-Markovitz but decided instead to file a supplemental EIR with examination of the alternatives. Judge Nichols then approved the City's revised EIR for the Civic Center Offsite Parking Garage project, signifying that they had met their burden in analyzing alternatives to demolishing the building.
The San Jose Landmarks Commission opposed demolition of the structure and the citizen committee that recommended the project location (Parking and Transportation) now says that its members didn't know the project would have significant impacts on the historic Fox Building when they recommended the site.
The City did not need to destroy this historic building to provide adequate parking for its needs. Alternatives included a “notched reduced parking” option that would have reduced 1190 parking spaces to 850 spaces. The city rejected this option for two reasons: (1) the lower number of parking spaces, and (2) the notched building would cast a shadow on a candidate City Landmark – the same Fox Building that their preferred plan demolished entirely.
If the City chose the notched building option, it could have done three things to make sure it had the parking it needed.
Despite continued advocacy on our part, the City refused to consider these or other feasible alternatives to mitigate this project’s impacts on historic resources. PAC*SJ decided to sue because it had no other means to prevent the unnecessary demolition of the historic Fox Building, and was alarmed at the continued and needless loss of San Jose’s historic resources.