Architect Thang Do lost his battle with lung cancer earlier this month at age 62, but the Saratoga resident left an important legacy in San Jose.
A Vietnamese immigrant, he was at the helm of Aedis Architects for the past 30 years. San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, in announcing Do’s death on Facebook, called him a giant of our community and said he “bestowed beauty on our city with everything he designed at Aedis Architecture, with a passion for sustainability and for telling each community’s unique story.”
I got to know him as we were both members of American Leadership Forum’s Urbanist network. For the past year, I occasionally joined Thang and others for lunch. His wife, Grace Liu, said the gathering was a highlight of his recent weeks. Despite his illness, his optimism never waned — about his life and about San Jose.
I’ll point out just two places he created to see his vision for this city. One was Santa Clara County’s Vietnamese American Service Center on Senter Road, which was completed last year. The center — which includes a health clinic, meeting rooms and child care facilities — could have been just another drab building, but it is a colorful structure with so many nods to Vietnamese culture in its design. It gives San Jose’s Vietnamese American population — the largest in the world outside Vietnam — a connection to their homeland, even if they had never been there. Thang also was an instrumental board member of PIVOT, a Vietnamese American progressive group that became very active during the recent wave of anti-Asian sentiment.
The other side of Thang’s optimism can be seen at SoFA Market, a food hall on South First Street right next to the Aedis Architects offices. The horseshoe-shaped interior is home to a diverse collection of eateries — Vietnoms, Umi Hand Roll, Habana Cuba, Hawaiian Poke Bowl and more — along with the Fountainhead Bar, which serves up cocktails names after architects or their creations. I asked Do about naming the bar after an Ayn Rand book and I remember him telling me it had nothing to do with conservative politics — just the book’s heavy emphasis on architecture that inspired generations of builders, himself included.
He wanted to create a space downtown where people could come together over food or drink to share ideas and laughter. He succeeded.
Nearly two dozen members of American Leadership Forum’s Urbanist group got together at SoFA Market for lunch this week to share our memories of Thang Do, and one person there recalled Thang’s desire to push back on developers who weren’t reaching far enough in their designs. “He always thought San Jose deserved better,” she recalled.
ENCHANTED COLLABORATION: New Ballet Director Dalia Rawson has choreographed a reimagined production of “La Boutique Fantasque” — or “The Enchanted Toyshop” — which will be performed May 22 at the Hammer Theatre Center in downtown San Jose. That reimagining of the original 1919 production included a collaboration between Rawson and animator Atlquetzalli “Ketzi” Rivera, who created scenes in an anime style that will be incorporated on-stage with the live dancers to add a bit of whimsy to the production.
Rivera, who is from Veracruz, Mexico, and Rawson met playing video games online and got to know each other professionally when she created animated paintings for the documentary, “Ruth Weis: Beat Goddess,” which featured a dancer from New Ballet and played at Cinequest in 2020.
“La Boutique Fantasque” has two performances Sunday: a special, one-hour performance at 11 a.m. geared for families with toddlers and preschoolers, and a regular show at 2 p.m. geared for the whole family. You can get more information and tickets at www.newballet.com.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN: State Sen. Dave Cortese will be loading a bus with education advocates, teachers and students Wednesday morning to drive them from San Jose to Sacramento to meet with elected officials and their staffs about keeping public education a budget priority. Of course, first on that list of more than a dozen officials is Cortese himself, who started this May tradition nearly two decades ago — well before he had an office at the State Capitol.
Source: www.mercurynews.com