Expanding Adobe’s presence and commitments to San Jose

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Gensler | Jason O’Rear Photography.

For over 40 years, Adobe’s focus on people, purpose, and community has been a driver of our growth. Our people — 28,000 and climbing — have always been our greatest assets and continue to be at the heart of shaping our employee experience, especially as we reimagine how we work. All the while, we’ve invested in the prosperity of the communities we call home. These principles, instilled by our co-founders John Warnock and Chuck Geschke in 1982, run deep in our DNA and endure as a proud part of their legacy.

Today, as we step into Adobe’s next chapter, I’m excited to share two exciting milestones: the opening of our new Founders Tower in San Jose and an update to our Hometown Commitment to continue driving positive change in the communities where our employees work and live .

Introducing Founders Tower

Adobe’s newly inaugurated Founders Tower is a physical manifestation of what we believe the future of the workplace will be — sustainably built and run, optimized for hybrid, designed for community, adaptable, and resilient to change. Named in honor of Chuck and John, the 18-story tower will add 1.25M square feet and capacity for 4,000 more employees to our San José headquarters campus as we continue to grow, attract the world’s top talent, and make Adobe one of the best places to work.

A space for connection and collaboration

We designed Founders Tower to be a place for our people to come together for moments that matter to build connections, foster community, and create the future together. Knowing teams come together in diverse ways, we designed Founders Tower with over 400 environments including team neighborhoods, focus rooms, collaboration zones, drop-in desks, adventure rooms and community gathering grounds, along with the technology to support them. We also view food as an enabler of community and connections, so we’ve made inclusive and sustainably sourced cuisine core to the experience, including an extensive café and multicultural food hall at the epicenter of our community gathering space, breathtaking dining rooms for large team and customer events, and a ground-level coffee shop that will be open to the public in the coming months.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Gensler | Jason O’Rear Photography.

Sustainable by design

With sustainability and wellbeing as foundational design principles, the opening of the Founders Tower represents a major step forward in Adobe’s goal to reduce overall carbon emissions. The decision to build the Founders Tower gave us the opportunity to be bold and invest in the future by designing the first all-electric building of its scale in Silicon Valley, powered entirely by renewable solar and wind energy. Running our food operations is a 50,000 sq. ft. of kitchen space complete with induction cooking technology — making it the largest all-electric commercial kitchen in North America. More than 70 percent of Adobe’s operational electricity demand is met with renewable electricity, and we are on-track to meet our 100 percent renewable electricity goal across our operations by 2025. Like the other three towers at our corporate headquarters, Founders Tower is LEED-certified.

Photo Credit: Sprig Electric

Creative and together with our community

Befitting a company who powers the world’s creativity and digital experiences, Founders Tower is infused with artistic and immersive experiences. Our community of artists from Behance and Adobe Stock are showcased on digital art columns powered by Adobe Experience Manager. Murals designed by incredible local artists adorn our walls as an homage to the rich diversity of the City of San José. And the bridge that will eventually connect Founders Tower to our existing three towers — West, East and Almaden — will be surrounded by unique art installations. Color psychology is used throughout the building to guide people to the spaces that most naturally fit their need: blue denotes focus, green promotes collaboration, and orange encourages connection and community. Tying it all together and grounding us in our history is the Adobe Experience Museum, a public showcase of Adobe’s values, mission, products and community focus.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Gensler | Jason O’Rear Photography.

Strengthening our Hometown roots and supporting local communities

Adobe has called San José home since 1994, when we became the first major technology company to move our corporate headquarters to downtown San José. And over the years, as a company who values being involved in the communities where we work and live, we have supported many San José institutions through direct support to community nonprofits — from Adobe Foundation grants and company contributions, including employee matching grants to product donations, employee volunteering, pro bono consulting and board service.

Today, we’re updating our Hometown Commitment by creating a holistic approach which encompasses employee engagement, volunteering and advocacy along with financial and product donations to drive positive social impact — starting with the City of San José. As part of this strategy, the Adobe Foundation is granting $2 million to support eight nonprofit organizations in San José that share in our commitment to solving critical local issues, revitalizing the community, and ensuring robust arts and cultural institutions.

The initial collaborations will support the San José Downtown Association, HomeFirst, The Kelsey, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, The Tech Interactive, Cinequest, Local Color SJ and the San José Museum of Art. By focusing on organizations that are addressing the immediate needs in the community such as homelessness, food insecurity and other critical issues, while also supporting downtown infrastructure such as arts and cultural institutions, we believe we can drive the greatest impact and build a stronger future together.

We are building on a history of supporting local San José organizations. In 2022 alone, Adobe donated more than $2.4 million and over 4,200 volunteer hours with hundreds of San Jose nonprofits. In fall 2021, San Jose State University (SJSU) was named the inaugural Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) within Adobe’s minority institution strategy — part of our Taking Action Initiative that aims to accelerate representation, growth, and advancement for underinvested communities. The Adobe Foundation granted $2 million to SJSU over the past two years to support diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, mentorship and professional development, faculty research and social justice programming.

With our Hometown Commitment, we look forward to supporting the San José community — and over time, more communities around the world where our employees work and live — by bringing the full power of Adobe and the Adobe Foundation, our people and products to further the missions of local nonprofits.

Adobe’s enduring focus on people

As someone who has been proud to call Adobe home for the past 25 years, I’ve been blessed to experience Adobe’s incredible culture at work, one that prioritizes our people, purpose and community. Our connections to people — our fellow colleagues, our neighbors, the artists and changemakers in our communities — are so much of what makes Adobe a great place to work, and no doubt will propel us in this next chapter as we create the future and change the world through digital experiences.