A draft rendering close-up of one man's idea for a new Silicon Valley landmark. Hafid Alfonso The landmarks of Silicon Valley aren't necessarily the most grandiose. They tend to be garages where startups were born, famous research labs or campuses of tech heavyweights.

One local resident, Hafid Alfonso, thinks the Valley deserves an icon or landmark with a "certain 'cool' factor" to match its history, and that landmark should be a Silicon Valley sign á la Hollywood.

"The city is considered a hub for technological innovation. However, San Jose does not have a distinguished icon displaying the creative ingenuity of Silicon Valley," Alfonso writes in his Silicon Valley sign letter.



Alfonso worked with two San Jose State students to draft images of what the giant sign could look like. The letter calls for the Silicon Valley sign to be 200 feet wide with each letter at about 45 feet tall. The Hollywood sign, in comparison, is about double the length at 350 feet, but only 45 feet tall. Alfonso's proposal, with the words stacked on top of each other, would make it towering.

A rendering view of the Silicon Valley sign from Milpitas on Highway 880. Hafid Alfonso



At night, Silicon Valley would be lit up with LED bulbs, or possibly made out of e-ink, so it could change color according to the sport team in town.

The proposal hasn't been submitted to any sort of government yet, so it's not likely you'll see Silicon Valley blinking over Levi Stadium anytime soon. More likely, it'd be good a plot point on the HBO show.