But when residents of Charles Street look east into the night, they see three massive buildings, blocking out their view of the sky. In the morning, the buildings block the view of the sunrise; in the afternoon, they reflect the sun into home windows, heating them up like ovens; and at night, the glow from the buildings and their sheer size block out the moon and stars.

"This has really been a thorn in our side for a while," said Monica Draganowski-Davis, Charles Street resident and president of the Charles Street 100 neighborhood organization. She said, "Ninety-nine percent of the time, we can't even see the moon."

The Mozart Buildings—planned just as the dot-bomb hit and completed just over a year ago—have been a thorn in many sides. Two of the three buildings—ranging in height from 86 to 100 feet tall—on Mathilda Avenue are empty, and residents surrounding the buildings have lost the views they once enjoyed.

The first problem brought to the city's attention was the issue of lights being left on at night in each building. Sunnyvale Economic Development Manager Karen Davis said that while some of the lights were emergency lights that must stay on 24 hours a day, there were several times when workers or Realtors, who were giving tours, would leave the full lights on all night. The glare from those lights was enough to illuminate nearby homes and further reduce residents' view of the stars.

Davis contacted the building managers, after phone, email and face-to-face meetings with Charles Street residents, and had them monitor the problem to make sure lights were turned off when not in use. Broadcom Corporation—in building No. 1 on the corner of Mathilda and Washington avenues—put its lights on timers so they automatically turn off when business is over.

Davis acted as the liaison because she handled mitigation problems during the original construction on the buildings.

"Hopefully we've put in place a system where if a problem should arise in the future, it can be taken care of quickly," Davis said. "Hopefully we can do it more proactively."

But Draganowski-Davis said the biggest problems are not while the sun is down, but while it is setting each night. As the sun goes down west of Mathilda, its light reflects off the wall of windows on the three buildings, directly into the homes on Charles Street. In recent weeks, it's been worse with long summer days and high heat.

"It turns our houses into little convection ovens," Draganowski-Davis said.

The light reflected into her home is worse in spring and summer, but persists whenever the sky is clear. Lately, the rooms affected have been "relatively uncomfortable" to be in between 4 and 8 p.m.

"We hired a landscape architect to help plant trees to eventually block the glare, but it will take about five to 10 years for those trees to grow enough," Draganowski-Davis said.

Draganowski-Davis said she hopes the city can work with the property managers and nearby residents to find another solution, like they did with the lights at night. Protective coatings to reduce glare or trees along Mathilda Avenue in front of the buildings to block some of the light are several of Draganowski-Davis' suggestions, but the city says nothing is going to be done in the immediate future because the problem has only recently been brought to its attention.