place

165 University Avenue

Buildings and structures in Santa Clara County, CaliforniaPalo Alto, CaliforniaSanta Clara County, California building and structure stubs

165 University Avenue or Karma building is a small rented office building on University Avenue, the main commercial street in downtown Palo Alto, California, that gave rise to Plug and Play Tech Center and to the Amidi Group. It is run by Rahim & Saeed Amidi, whose family fled from the Iranian revolution in the 1970s. Located near Stanford University, the building has served as an incubator for several noted Silicon Valley companies, including Logitech, Google, PayPal, Danger, Inc (bought by Microsoft), BetterWorks, Milo.com (bought by eBay), and Yummly (bought by Whirlpool). YouTube also provides this location as the example address when setting the location of an uploaded video. Until 2000, the ground floor was home to a Palo Alto institution, Chimaera Books & Music. Like many independent bookstores, its closure was due, in part, to competition from the dot com economy.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article 165 University Avenue (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

165 University Avenue
University Avenue, Palo Alto

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Website Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: 165 University AvenueContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 37.4444 ° E -122.1631 °
placeShow on map

Address

Onigilly

University Avenue 164
94301 Palo Alto
California, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

Website
onigilly.com

linkVisit website

Share experience

Nearby Places

Ramona Street Architectural District
Ramona Street Architectural District

The Ramona Street Architectural District, in downtown Palo Alto, California, is a Registered Historic District. This portion of the street, between University Avenue and Hamilton Avenue, is a highly distinctive business block. It showcases the Spanish Colonial and Early California styles with gentle archways, wrought iron work, tile roofs of varying heights and courtyards. The development of Ramona Street, named after the 1884 novel Ramona, was an early successful attempt to expand laterally the central commercial district. Pedro de Lemos, a craftsman, graphic artist and curator of the Stanford Museum had been concerned with the larger scale and somewhat linear development along University Avenue. He believed that an informal architecture full of whimsy and integrated with nature was indeed compatible with commercial businesses. The first building to go up, in 1925, was the Gotham Shop at 520 Ramona, built by de Lemos, who had bought the property to preserve a very old oak tree (finally removed in the 1980s). He designed the building around the venerable oak and created shops with rustic benches, ceramic tiles and stucco walls. In 1938, de Lemos built another Spanish Colonial Revival commercial office building across the street at 533 - 539 Ramona, with a recessed arched entrance, an interior patio, wrought iron and more tiles. Noted local architects Birge Clark, W. H. Weeks and others added to the Spanish flavor of what de Lemos started. In 1928, Clark designed the multistory Medico-Dental Building at Hamilton and Ramona, which now houses the University Art Center on the ground floor. Across Ramona, Weeks designed the Cardinal Hotel, Palo Alto's first non-frame hotel. Excitement attended the Cardinal's debut, for it became the scene of tea dances and balls. The hotel had another purpose; it was intended to help make Hamilton a commercial street. The unified aspect of the 500 Ramona Street block was recognized by its designation in 1985 as a Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places. Since then, Plaza Ramona and other remodelings at the University Avenue end of the block have enhanced the theme.