Preserving a restored cannery’s rich history.

When Sobrato Real Estate purchased an old cannery building in Palo Alto with the intent to restore it as LEED Platinum, Class A office space, they also bought a significant piece of California history.

Thomas Foon Chew was a prominent industrialist and the owner of the Bayside Canning Company, which he built into a powerhouse after taking the reins from his father following the 1906 earthquake. He nurtured Bayside from a small tomato-packing business into the nation’s third-largest canning company, earning considerable wealth and respect during a challenging era for Asian Americans.

Volume created two exhibit installations that honor this rich history with both didactic storytelling and formal gestures that call back to the materials and processes of industrial canning.

Bayside boasted thousands of employees and produced over half a million cans annually, packing the aforementioned products as well as peaches, plums, apricots, and pears from orchards in the Santa Clara Valley and greater Northern California. Much of that industry happened right on this site. Among other accomplishments, Foon Chew worked with an engineer to develop the first method of canning whole asparagus without damaging the stalks, earning him the nickname “The Asparagus King.”

The column design synthesizes cues from both the can form and Foon Chew’s “Asparagus King” persona to create a soaring mini-memorial to Bayside Canning’s barrier-breaking owner and the business he created.

The column sits alongside a mosaic mural created by artist Kyungmi Shin.

Giacomina Ferrillo created the richly-realized asparagus illustration that runs the full height of the totem.

The interior exhibition module structure echoes the wooden crates used to pack fruits and vegetables. It’s also mobile, so any future occupant of this retail space can easily move (and even fold, if necessary) the exhibit to a better-situated area within the space’s overall layout.

Especially meaningful to see Thomas Foon Chew’s family to interact with (and approve of!) the installations.

Other Projects

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Pembroke

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza