This week I finally got to do something I’ve been waiting some five years for: I got to go inside and explore Redwood City’s new fully-functional (almost) Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center. In early May I attended, and then wrote about, the ribbon-cutting for this fantastic new public amenity, but mostly because of the large crowd I opted not to tour the building at that time. I knew that I would soon have a chance to take my time and explore on my own, and this week was that time. The Center opened for full operation (with one exception: the Adaptive Physical Education room and classes are scheduled to open on Monday, June 15) last Monday, June 8. I went by on Tuesday morning, and paid my dues (literally), becoming a member and gaining full access.

A word about membership: the normal fee for Redwood City residents ages 50 and up is $1 per day. That gives you access to the lounge, the upstairs walking track, and the gym. But for just $20, you can obtain a yearly pass that lets you roam the building and take part in many of the classes and activities being hosted at the Center. And, this month only, that yearly membership fee has been reduced to just $13. So as long as you go by in person, or sign up online, by June 30, you, too, can have unlimited access to the Center for one year. I signed up in person: I just had to fill out a very simple form, stand for a photograph, and hand over my $13 (cash or credit card accepted), and right on the spot I received my VMSC “Club Card.”

Armed with my card, I first headed towards the gym. Strolling down the hallway that leads from the lobby to the gym, I noted a nice display of 49er memorabilia in cases along the windows facing out onto Mitchell “49er” Field:

On the other side of the hallway, I took a moment to step into the lounge:

The hallways, both upstairs and down, have a great deal to look at; I’ll need to spend some more time really studying them on a future visit:

Next to the lounge is the “Wellness Room.” I believe that it is where the yoga classes and other such activities will take place. Here is a peek through the glass door into that space:

Next up is the Adaptive PE room. Although not yet operational, I nevertheless peeked through the glass door to get a glimpse of what it looks like:

Finally, the gym. When I was there it was set up for pickleball (with two courts), but this gym can also be used for half-court basketball (the room isn’t large enough for a full court) and for volleyball:

Unlike the other rooms I’d visited by this point, the gym is a full two stories in height. And there is a balcony on the second floor, accessible from the upstairs open-air deck, where one can sit and watch the activities going on in the gym.

Upstairs, there are even more displays in the hallway. For instance, this rather impressive one honoring veterans near the top of the main staircase:

Along the way towards the upper deck, there is a nice-sized conference room and a number of offices. And then you come to the deck itself:

This is a really interesting space. As you can see, there are some large planters, which the Master Gardeners are in charge of. There is a walking track around the perimeter of the deck (the grey area), and then there are some tables and chairs along the two open sides. The part of the building you can see straight ahead is the upper portion of the gym: through a door in that wall is the gym overlook. Finally, those two large black things sticking up out of the planters are vents for the building’s passive cooling system.

From the side of the deck visible in the above photo, you look out over the parking lot, Red Morton Park’s new fenced dog park, and the old Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center — which one day will be replaced by Redwood City’s new YMCA:

The other side of the deck is right above one of the Mitchell “49er” Field end zones (do they call them that in soccer?), making this deck a terrific place to sit and watch a practice or a match.

Before I leave the outdoor deck, I should note that the planters are well worth a look. Each has a different theme. For instance, one is full of edibles, and one is a display of ground-cover plants that can be used as water-efficient lawn alternatives. This one:

The new Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center is basically L-shaped; so far I had explored the long arm of the L, which extends into the park. The other arm, which runs parallel to Madison Avenue, contains a couple of multipurpose rooms and a dedicated arts-and-crafts room looking out towards the street. Most of this portion of the building, though, contains the building’s 279-seat auditorium/theater. Like the gym, the auditorium is two stories tall. Upstairs, there is a small balcony with two rows of seating, with the bulk of the seating being downstairs, as you’d expect:

Among the many activities now taking place in the Center are free movies, with a new movie being shown each Friday at 1:15 p.m. But this auditorium also has a proper stage and dressing rooms behind the stage, making it suitable for live entertainment, lectures, and the like.

Downstairs, along the Madison Avenue side of the building, there is an industrial kitchen and a large multipurpose room that, mid-day, is used as a dining area. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays, seniors can buy and enjoy lunch in this space:

The menu looks great: burgers and dogs, salads, various quesadillas, sandwiches, soups, sides, and of course a variety of beverages. And all for fairly reasonable prices: a burger runs for $5 (fries are an extra $2), a tuna melt or BLT costs $6, soft drinks are $2, for example.

The building is wonderful, and I will likely be dropping in from time-to-time when I’m out on my walks. But of course the real value is in the free and low-cost programs that the city hosts in the building’s new spaces, of which there are plenty. Rather than list them here, I’ll simply provide a link to the current edition of the catalog of senior offerings.

As I’ve noted in previous blog posts, this new building was designed to be extremely efficient in terms of energy and water usage, and was built using sustainable materials and construction techniques. All of that adds up to the city expecting the building to qualify as LEED Platinum, the highest level granted by the US Green Building Council — a real honor. The project wasn’t cheap — $56 million — and it took longer to complete than anyone expected — 1,753 days — but now that it is done, we can leave all that behind us and simply enjoy the result.

This week’s walk began with my visit to the Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center, and although I spent an hour or two there, I nevertheless continued on and took a rather long walk (12 miles!) covering most of the other major projects still underway in Redwood City at the moment. But I’m going to hold those updates for next week. Instead, for those wanting to know some of what it took to get to today, I thought I’d end with a recap of the evolution of this building (from a physical standpoint; years of planning went into the project before any on-site work got underway, of course). I’ll begin with a couple of photos of what had to be torn down in order to build this new facility, and follow with some highlights of the building’s construction.

Three buildings had to be removed. First was the NFL Alumni building, which was located behind where the new building’s theater is now (where today there is a new parking lot):

To the right of the NFL Alumni building, along Madison Avenue, there was the Herkner Memorial Swim Center:

Continuing to the right, along what used to be a section of Nevada Street (that portion of street has become a “promenade” that runs into the park along the face of the new building), was the Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center Annex:

Upstairs in the annex, as I understand it, were offices for Bill Walsh and other 49er staff, for use back when the 49ers trained on the adjacent field (which of course remains, and in fact just recently received new artificial turf). Here is a view from the field of that annex:

Note the exterior stairway that led from the field up to the team offices.

Construction fences went up around these old buildings in late July of 2021. Within a month, demolition was well underway. By mid-October, everything was gone, and dirt was being pushed around. In November, underground utility infrastructure was beginning to be installed. Concrete was being poured at the beginning of March 2022, but it took until the end of May before the foundations were fully in place. The building’s steel structure quickly began to rise after that, with a number of the key elements being in place by mid-June:

(The above photo shows the basic structure for the portion of the building containing the second-floor deck and the gym.)

By September 2022, the entire building’s skeleton was pretty much complete, and lesser elements to support the building’s exterior skin were being installed. Here is what the building looked like by late October:

And here is a nice aerial shot showing the project’s progress as of the beginning of 2023:

By late March, large parts of the building had received their first layer of exterior skin:

By October, the next layer was going on:

Elsewhere on the building, parts of the building were receiving their final exterior surfaces that same month:

But it wasn’t until early 2024 that the majority of the building’s exterior was complete, and most of the windows were in:

At that point, some parts of the interior were looking pretty good. For instance, here is what the lobby looked like:

The gym already had its basketball hoop:

The theater, though, still needed a lot of work:

By the end of 2024, the building looked to be in the home stretch, and landscaping work was underway:

However, there was still a lot of detail cleanup to be done on the building itself:

The final stretch took a long time; I took the above picture on December 18, 2024. It took just short of 18 months from that point to get to last Monday and the building’s full opening. Not being involved in the project in any way, what went on during that time I cannot say. Although I have plenty of photos from those 18 months, based on visible progress from the outside, all I can say was that it was slow. But we got there in the end, and as I noted, the final result seems worth the wait. Certainly if you are a Redwood City resident aged 50 or over, I highly recommend paying the Center a visit and seeing if it is somewhere that you, too, might want to spend time.