IBM Homestead Facility

Project: IBM Homestead Facility
Owner: IBM Corporation
Architect: John Carl Warnecke & Associates
Landscape Architect: Michael Painter, A.S.L.A.
Structural Engineer: Gilbert, Forsberg, Diekmann, & Schmidt
Photographers: Morley Baer, Joshua Freiwald, Martin K. Grauer

Certificate of Merit, American Association of Nurserymen, 1968
Merit Award, American Society of Landscape Architects, 1968

This year-round housing and recreation facility was built on a valuable, industrially zoned 30-acre site which adjoined the International Business Machines manufacturing center and customer education facility in San Jose. In addition to providing housing and recreation for clients and executives attending the company’s education program, the area functions as a park-like green space. It is primarily a recreation facility which includes a central common building, swimming pool, a short nine-hole golf course, a man-made lake, and eight guest houses which provide room space for sixty-four guests.

The design concept was the creation of rustic wood structures which would harmonize with the rural atmosphere and emphasize informal and comfortable living. The beautiful orchards were preserved, and a small, manmade lake was created for both irrigation and visual relief.