750 Ridder Park Drive Architectural Drawings

Finding aid created by History San Jose Research Library staff using RecordEXPRESS
History San Jose Research Library
1661 Senter Road
San Jose, California 95112
(408) 287-2290
research@historysanjose.org
http://www.historysanjose.org/
2023


Descriptive Summary

Title: 750 Ridder Park Drive Architectural Drawings
Dates: 1965-1995
Collection Number: 2018-42
Creator/Collector: Heid, Warren B. San Jose Mercury-news
Extent: 10 cubic feet
Online items available
Repository: History San Jose Research Library
San Jose, California 95112
Abstract: Architectural plans for the former San Jose Mercury News plant at 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, including original construction and later expansions and renovations.
Language of Material: English

Access

The collection is open to the public for research by appointment.

Publication Rights

Contact the Research Library & Archives for information on publication and reproduction.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item]. 750 Ridder Park Drive Architectural Drawings. Collection Number: 2018-42. History San Jose Research Library

Acquisition Information

Donated to History San Jose in 2018 by Super Micro Computer.

Biography/Administrative History

The 750 Ridder Park Drive publishing plant was designed in the modernist style by Warren B. Heid, and built on 36 acres in 1965-1966. The paper moved its operations to the new location in 1967 after several locations in downtown San Jose. It operated at the Ridder Park Drive location until 2014, when a downsized operation moved back to downtown San Jose. The site was sold to Super Micro Computer, Inc.

Scope and Content of Collection

Collection of architectural plans for the former San Jose Mercury News plant at 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, designed by Warren B. Heid, including original construction in 1965-1966 and later expansions and renovations, including the 1979 plant expansion, 1985 renovations and additional presses, and 1995 improvements. These sets of plans were housed and used at the Mercury News site. They were kept onsite after the plant was sold, and later transferred to History San Jose in their original cabinets. As well as documenting the modernist aesthetic of the buildings and landscape design, the plans highlight the changes the Mercury News -- and the newspaper publishing industry in general -- underwent through three decades of shifting advertising revenues and technologies.

Indexing Terms

Newspaper buildings
Modern movement (Architecture)
San Jose Mercury-news
Carl N. Swenson Co. Inc.
Hawley, Peterson & Snyder Architects
San Jose (Calif.)
architectural drawings (visual works)
diazotypes (copies)
sepia prints
xerographic copies