Market Post Tower
"Gateway to Global Internet and Telecom Data Exchange".
Built in 1984, Market Post Tower is located at 55 South
Market Street in downtown
San Jose,
California. The building projects a striking image with its 15 stories of
gold reflective glass, and can easily be seen on approach to San Jose. Designed by local architect
David Takamoto, it is owned by
CRG West, an operating partner of the
Carlyle Group, who leases space in the 289,965 square foot building. The Carlyle Group bought the "Gold Building" from
Quaestor, Inc. on February 3, 2000, for $71.75 million.
Market Post Tower is the main hub of
Internet traffic for the Western
United States, and one of the largest
peering points in the world. It is home to around 25 of the largest ISPs and
telecom providers in the country and the world, including Worldcom's
MAE-West. Other tenants include
Cogent,
Covad Communications,
Genuity,
Global Crossing,
GRIC,
Hurricane Electric,
Level 3 Communications,
MCI Worldcom (MAE-West),
MFN,
MFS,
On Fiber,
PacBell,
Peering by PAIX,
Primus,
Qwest Communications,
Southern Cross,
Telecom New Zealand,
Time Warner,
Telecom,
UFO (AT&T Broadband),
UUNet,
Verizon (GTE),
and
XO Communications.
Marketing grain of salt having been taken, they claim that 70% of Internet traffic from the
Western United States and 40% of the world's Internet traffic passes through the building. The first claim is especially reasonable given the fact of how much of the Western United States' traffic passes through
Silicon Valley, and that nearly every provider in the area is peered with one of the providers in Market Post Tower.
MAE-West itself claims to carry 40% of the traffic in the United States. In fact, there is an
astronomically high chance that your packets went through Market Post Tower when retrieving this node, since Everything2 is hosted in San Jose by
AboveNet/
Level 3, who rent space in the building. (Update: Ok, now that E2 is hosted in Michigan, your packets have as much chance of passing under a
cow patty as through Market Post Tower, but the odds are still fairly high if you live in the Western United States.)
The building includes the usual
high class telecom building amenities, including five
elevators, 24/7
security with
closed circuit video monitoring and electronic
keycard access, private underground parking, fire protection systems, two backup
generators with a day's worth of
fuel, and a
riser system for
fiber,
electric, and more. The building also features a
cafeteria, post office, bank,
convenience store,
concierge service, and on-site engineers.
Market Post Tower also features two "
Meet Me Rooms" (MMR), on the 2nd and 3rd floors. These carrier-neutral areas offer
cabinets and
cages that allow
tenants throughout the building to connect to each other. If Market Post Tower is
one big data party, the MMRs are the dedicated
orgy rooms.
As of 2000, the rent was reported to be $4.30 USD per square foot. The largest tenant is not a telecom company however, but instead the
Internal Revenue Service, who use half of the building for
office space.[2]
Sources:
[1]: http://www.marketposttower.com/
[2]: http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2000/02/21/story5.html