Visitors to the 8th floor of the joint San Jose City-San Jose State University library are treated to a wide vista of views of Silicon Valley. This view looks northwest towards downtown San Jose. Below is the intersection of San Fernando and 4th Streets.

With one entrance pointing toward downtown's center and another aimed at the thatches of palm and jacaranda of San Jose State's Taylor Quad, the new Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library clearly spans both worlds.

The $177.5 million library, at Fourth and San Fernando streets, sits amid a billion dollars of planned or just-opened city, university and San Jose Unified School District development projects.

It represents an eastward push for downtown redevelopment, which has previously focused mainly between Guadalupe Parkway and Third Street.

``I've heard that saying so many times in my life -- `the jewel in the crown' -- but now I know what that saying means,'' downtown Councilwoman Cindy Chavez said of the new library.

The airy, modern building, with the city entrance on San Fernando and the university entrance facing the quad, is a critical piece in downtown's development jigsaw puzzle, filling the gap between campus and city in an area that once housed many small businesses and residences.

A short walk to the north of the library sit many of the city's newest building projects, including the $57.6 million Fourth Street Garage, topped with a banquet center and grounded by retail and restaurants. Up the street, construction rumbles on San Jose's $343 million domed City Hall. Across Santa Clara Street at Seventh Street, a $29.5 million Horace Mann Elementary School -- a state-of-the-art campus for some of the city's poorest students -- is almost ready to open.

To the library's west, construction is set to begin later this year on a large $200 million retail and housing project spanning three blocks of South Second Street.

And several blocks to the south, the university is building a $200 million-plus ``housing village'' for students.

The library is at the center of it all, said Leslie Little, director of downtown management for the San Jose Redevelopment Agency.

``The thing I like best about the library is that it really is a gateway to the university for us,'' she said. ``It's not just downtown as one block and the university as another block.''

The library will serve a vital community purpose, Chavez said.

``There are people who live within walking distance of this library who don't have a computer in their home,'' she said. ``For many people, it will be the first time they walk on a college campus. Just as important as linking the buildings is linking the community with its assets.''

Horace Mann Principal Adam Escoto seconds that sentiment. When his school opens in a few months, it will serve homeless children and those who live in Naglee Park's nicest houses.

He believes that the new school and library will embolden poor families to expect more.

``There's an ennobling process that takes place when people begin to feel worthy of a safe community, a community where they don't have to look at dilapidated buildings or vacant lots,'' he said. ``It's something more than bricks and mortar. It raises people's expectations of themselves, not just of government.''