Honoring creativity and community within Adobe and San José

Photo Credit: Dominique Graves.

San José has been Adobe’s hometown for the past 30 years. As the first major tech company to establish its headquarters in San José, Adobe has consistently sought fresh and dynamic opportunities to support the community and infuse creativity throughout the city. From collaborations with local organizations, to addressing vital community challenges; to investing in public art for our buildings that honor the city’s spirit of creativity and innovation, like the San José Semaphore that changed the city skyline, we’re always in pursuit of opportunities to enrich our hometown.

Earlier this year, we transformed the San José skyline once again by unveiling Founders Tower, the expansion to Adobe headquarters that added a new fourth tower to our campus. The first all-electric building of its scale in Silicon Valley, Founders Tower, dedicated to our late co-founders John Warnock and Chuck Geschke, was designed as a place for our employees to foster connection and create the future together, and for the local community to enjoy.

Today we’re excited to share the expanded Adobe headquarters is now complete with new vibrant artwork and a bridge connecting Founders Tower with the rest of our campus. We’re also pleased to announce that we are furthering our Hometown commitments and partnerships with local nonprofits by granting an additional $1.8 million to continue driving positive change in our community.

Creativity for all to enjoy

As a company that powers the world’s creativity and digital experiences, it was vital that our expanded campus feature vibrant art installations as a tribute to Adobe and San José’s creative legacy. We collaborated with talented local artists Leo Bersamina, Leah Rosenberg, and New York-based duo Hou de Sousa who created spectacular pieces for our employees and the community to enjoy.

Creativity Blooms

The completion of our headquarters is marked by the opening of the bridge, an eye-catching addition that seamlessly connects the new and existing towers and introduces a creative gateway into San José. We collaborated with Nancy Hou and Josh de Sousa, the husband-wife duo behind the multidisciplinary studio Hou de Sousa, who specialize in large scale art installations and sculpture. Their creation for the bridge, Creativity Blooms, was inspired by the San José community’s agricultural history, the spectrum of color Adobe and its tools represent and the freedom they offer anyone to unleash their creative potential and imagination.

Creativity Blooms is a canopy of color that blends art and science. As one journeys across the bridge, they become immersed in a surreal experience composed of tree sculptures, each with a unique spectrum of color and geometry that invites exploration and discovery. At night, the bridge lights up the San José skyline with lively hues, as colors emanate from the Adobe logo at street level, ascending to give energy to the “roots” that spread light and life across the bridge.

Creating the future, together

Visitors and employees approaching Founders Tower will also see the work of Leah Rosenberg, a Bay Area local who works across an array of artistic mediums to explore the nuances of our engagement with, and sensory responses to color, form, and process.

Her welcoming and playful large-scale artwork, All Together Now, explores the relationship between color and our perception of places. Vertical stripes, inspired by the building's architecture, transform into vibrant "confetti" when viewed from bottom to top, symbolizing a timeless celebration. When observed from top to bottom, the “confetti” pieces become "seeds" being sown, connecting to the roots of the bridge. Regardless of your perspective, the artwork is a tale of collaboration, community, hope, and progress, reflecting the creative spirit within the Adobe community and throughout San José.

Celebrating the diversity of our community

Along the external side of Founders Tower, visitors find a mural entitled Community (Self Portrait) created by Leo Bersamina, a local Bay Area artist who works in painting, photography and sculpture. Drawing from his life experiences, Leo’s works are layered with memory, markers of ethnic identity and spirituality. In Leo’s own words, “I look for patterns we create through our living relationships with forces of nature, and models created through encounters with other people, experiences, travel, shelter, struggle, habit, and with our own genetic makeup.”

Community (Self Portrait) is a celebration of the diverse, creative, and passionate community of San José and Bersamina’s own identity through abstract patterns commonly found in the textiles and crafts inspired by his Filipino, German, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Indigenous-American roots.

Supporting our hometown

Earlier this year, we shared our evolved Hometown Commitment to better support community nonprofits through a holistic approach encompassing employee engagement, volunteerism, and advocacy along with financial and product donations to drive positive social impact.

We’re honored to announce that the Adobe Foundation is granting an additional $1.8 million to support 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. In total, the Adobe Foundation has granted $3.8 million in support of the San José Downtown Association, HomeFirst, The Kelsey, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, The Tech Interactive, Cinequest, Local Color SJ,  San José Museum of Art, Children’s Discovery Museum, Guadalupe River Park Conservancy and the City of San José Blue Zones Project Readiness Assessment through our Hometown Commitment.

In the heart of San José, Adobe's commitment to the artistic spirit stands tall as a beacon of innovation and unity, inviting all to partake in the transformative power of creativity. We’re honored by the opportunity to partner with these incredible artists and local organizations, and we look forward to continuing to enrich our community together.