Main San José Carnegie Library

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library (also known locally as the MLK Library or the King Library) is an 8-story public library and university library, located in downtown San Jose, California, which had its grand opening on August 16, 2003. As of 2018, it is the largest library building in the western United States built in a single construction project, with over 475,000 square feet (44,000 m²) of space on eight floors and approximately 1.6 million volumes. The King Library is a collaboration between the City of San José and San José State University: it is the main library for both San José State University and the San José Public Library system. In 2004 it was honored as Library of the Year by Library Journal and Thomson Gale, for its collaborative combination of the two functions as well as for the building. On its tenth anniversary in 2013 it was still the largest joint university-municipal library in the United States.The Library building can accommodate over 2000 visitors.

The Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies serves as a museum, research center, and host of lectures and performances devoted solely to the life and works of Ludwig van Beethoven. It is the only institution of its kind in North America and holds the largest collection of Beethoven works and memorabilia outside Europe. The center is operated by San Jose State University and the American Beethoven Society. It is located on the fifth floor of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, which is located on the San Jose State campus in downtown San Jose, California.

Tower Hall is the oldest building on the campus of San Jose State University in San Jose, California. It was constructed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style in 1910. It was designed by California-based architects Sellon & Hemmings.

Hammer Theatre is a performance venue in Downtown San José. Located on the Paseo de San Antonio, the theatre is operated by San José State University.

The 88 is a 22-story, 87.2 m (286 ft) residential skyscraper in downtown San Jose, California. Upon completion of the tower in 2008, the tower became the tallest building in the city, surpassing the 86.9 m (285 ft) San Jose City Hall that was completed in 2005.

Victory Salute, commonly referred to as the Olympic Black Power Statue, is a monument depicting the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute performed by African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos. The monument consists of two bronze statues covered in a fiberglass mosaic, atop a concrete base designed to emulate the Olympic podium. It was created in 2005 by Portuguese artist Rigo 23 and is installed next to Tower Hall on the San José State University campus, in San Jose, California, United States.

The Downtown Historic District of San Jose, California is a designated U.S. Historic District area of the city roughly the size of one square block. It is bounded by S. First Street to the west, E. San Fernando Street to the south, S. Third Street to the east, and E. Santa Clara Street to the north, but also includes the south side of E. Santa Clara Street between Third and Fourth Streets.

The California State Normal School was a teaching college system founded on May 2, 1862, eventually evolving into San José State University in San Jose and the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles.

San José City Hall is the seat of the municipal government of San Jose, California. Located in Downtown San Jose, it was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier in a Postmodern style. It consists of an 18-story tower, an iconic glass rotunda, and a city council chamber wing, laid out within a two-block-long public square known as San José Civic Plaza. The tower rises 285 feet (87 m) above the plaza, making it the second tallest building in San Jose. San Jose has had six seats of government in its history. City officials met in Downtown San Jose from before the city's incorporation in 1850 until the 1950s, when a modern City Hall was built at Civic Center to the north. The current City Hall's construction capped a period of rapid growth for the city during the dot-com bubble. Its opening in 2005 marked the municipal government's return downtown after half a century in an office park setting.

The Paseo de San Carlos is a pedestrian paseo in Downtown San Jose, spanning across San Jose State University's campus.

The Twohy Building is a historic building in San Jose, California, located on the Paseo de San Antonio in Downtown San Jose. It was built in 1917 for Judge John W. Twohy, the founder of the Twohy Brothers Construction Company. The company focused on "design and heavy/civil construction of railroads, bridges, tunnels, and public wprks projects, as well as manufacturing railroad cars, World War I "Victory" ships, and ownership of railroads. In 1906, the Twohy family relocated to San Jose to construct the nearby Bayshore Cut-Off for Southern Pacific and supervise repairs to railroad bridges damaged by the San Francisco earthquake" For example, it built part of the Southern Pacific Railway.The building was designed by architect William Binder in the Classical Revival architectural style. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since October 6, 2003. It was built as a commercial building, with professional offices above a large ground floor drug store."Construction of the Twohy Building helped establish South 1st as the center of the business community in San Jose."

The Paseo de César Chávez is a pedestrian paseo in Downtown San Jose, spanning across San Jose State University's campus.