This week, I took a walk I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time: I walked from my home near Sequoia Hospital (that is, near the intersection of Alameda de las Pulgas and Whipple Avenue) to 1 Meta Way, which is located in the part of Menlo Park out along Highway 84 south of Marsh Road. If the address isn’t enough of a giveaway, that part of Menlo Park is home to Meta (nee Facebook). These days Meta’s campus is made up of a great many buildings running from Marsh Road all the way to Willow Road (where you’ll find the old Sun Microsystems Campus, before then-Facebook took it over). I took this particular walk for a couple of reasons. For one, I wanted to check up on the two large housing projects being built among the many office buildings (most of which, but not all of which, seem to be occupied by Meta). For another, I wanted to take some photographs of the various mobile home and trailer parks along East Bayshore Rd.  (I’ll write about those in a future post; for today, I’m concentrating on the housing projects and a couple of other interesting things I encountered on my journey.)

For the curious, I believe that this is the longest walk I’ve taken in service of this blog: 12.5 miles. Knowing that I’d be out all day, I was careful to plan my walk for a day that was relatively cool (on Tuesday), which helped. And before I set out I gave my route some thought. I ended up taking what I believe was the safest, although not necessarily the shortest, route: I first followed Hopkins Avenue, then Broadway, to Main Street in downtown Redwood City. From there, I walked along Main Street out to the Peninsula Boardwalk shopping center (where Kohl’s and Sports Basement are located). Using the Highway 101 Pedestrian Undercrossing, I made my way to the bay side of the freeway, where I took a small detour through the One Marina condominium complex so I could get some updated pictures of what is left of Docktown Marina (for the curious, there is very little left). Then, I took the Bridge to Nowhere over Redwood Creek, and then followed Blomquist Street down to Woodside Road. Crossing over, Blomquist becomes East Bayshore Road, which eventually becomes the Bayfront Expressway (Highway 84) at Marsh Road.

On the way, I passed the first of the interesting things I alluded to earlier, one that has an interesting connection to my eventual goal. This:

Yep, it’s a parking lot. But not just any parking lot. Many years ago this parcel held a quonset hut out of which some sort of industrial business was being run. But by August of 2014, at least, the property had been cleared and was in the process of being turned into a parking lot. More recently, the parking lot was upgraded with a great many electric vehicle chargers (many of which you can see in the above image); those chargers service a fleet of electric buses, some of which were parked in the lot when I went by. So what is the connection? Those buses run all through the rather extensive Meta campus, ferrying employees from one building to another (and possibly to transit). I don’t know just how many employees are actually working in the offices on any given day, and thus how much ridership this particular fleet is enjoying right now, but as I explored the various Meta buildings later in my walk I did see a couple of those very electric buses making their way from one stop to another:

If you’ve driven the Bayfront Expressway in the last couple of years (perhaps to get to the Dumbarton Bridge), you’ll undoubtedly have seen the two really large office buildings that stand along that street just south(east) of Marsh Road:

These mark the beginning of Meta’s sprawling campus, which extends all the way to Willow Road. I took the above picture from Bedwell Bayfront Park, on the bay side of the expressway, after which I crossed the expressway and spent some time looking at the massive housing project being built just behind the rightmost of these two buildings:

This particular project, which is being built by the folks at Greystar (who were responsible for many of the large multi-family residential buildings constructed in Redwood City over the last ten or so years), is being called Menlo Portal. It spans the width of an entire block, and thus has two faces: one on Constitution Drive, and one on Independence Drive. It is replacing some 64,000 square feet of office space with a seven-story, 335-unit apartment building (the apartments will be for-rent) and, separated by a public central plaza, a three-story, 35,000-square-foot office building containing a 1,600-square-foot “neighborhood serving commercial space” that has been proposed as a childcare center.

So far, all of the work seems to have been concentrated on the apartment building: the office building will eventually rise up in the foreground of the above picture, closer to the intersection. As you can see, parts of the massive housing project are farther along than other parts. Overall, though, the project is making great progress, and presumably will be leasing sometime next year.

Here is a view of the far end of the project, along Independence Drive:

That single-story office building you see in the foreground is not part of the project, and thus will remain (for now). Just behind the housing project, a bit farther along Independence Drive, are a couple of more single-story office buildings. This one is right next to the project:

If you look closely at this particular image, you might spot the arm of a backhoe and the top of a porta-potty. From those I deduce that this particular building is likely not long for this world, although I do not as yet know what might replace it.

This entire part of Menlo Park is fascinating for its current blend of small, nondescript buildings (like the two previous) and tall, modern ones. From where I took the above picture there was one of these new ones directly behind me. Next to that is a multi-story parking structure and the Hotel NIA:

These and others, of course, all line Highway 101, and are very visible from that busy thoroughfare.

Greystar’s large housing project at 110 Constitution Drive (and 115 Independence Drive) is impressive for its size and scale. But interestingly enough, it isn’t the only one: just a couple of blocks down Constitution Drive, Greystar is nearly as far along on an even bigger project:

Like with Menlo Portal, this project (“Lume Menlo Park”) spans the width of an entire block. The above image shows the project’s “backside,” at 141 Jefferson Drive. As for the front, it can be found at 172 Constitution Drive. That end is currently covered with scaffolding, though, so here is a view of the side of the project (which is much more interesting, at least for now) as viewed from Constitution Drive:

As you might be able to tell from the above photograph, rather than one large building this project consists of two seven-story buildings that together will contain 441 for-rent apartments that’ll range in size from studios to three-bedroom units. If that isn’t enough, once these buildings are complete Greystar plans to build another six (much smaller) buildings in the foreground that together will contain 42 for-sale townhouse-style condominiums.

My primary aim this week was to check up on Greystar’s two projects, something I was pleased to be able to do. While I was there, though, I of course wandered through the area to look for other items of interest. One I’ve mentioned before, but thought I should point out again, for those who missed it:

This rather interesting-looking building, believe it or not, is Tide Academy, a public high school. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that this school is tech-focused: they aim to “provide opportunities for students to pursue their interests through a variety of subject areas in dual-enrolled college courses and Career Technical Education (CTE) pathways to be college and career ready.”

Prior to my walk, I knew about Tide Academy. What I didn’t know about, though, was this place:

Still under construction (but nearly complete, as you can see), I assumed when I saw it that this was an office building. The fact that it doesn’t look much like its neighbors I chalked up to an independent developer. As it turns out, I was wrong. It wasn’t until I got home and did a bit of research that I learned that in fact this building, located at the corner of Chilco Street and Constitution Drive (which is called Meta Way on this side of Chilco Street) is, in fact, another hotel.

Called “citizenM” (don’t blame me — I didn’t name it) it is, according to the hotel’s website,

“what Silicon Valley’s been missing – a playful, tech-forward hotel that’s an escape for worker bees and a haven for business travellers. Located on the fringe of Facebook’s Menlo Park campus, this is the spot for remote workers wanting a change of scenery, for that all-important pitch you’ve been practicing, or for a catch-up drink after work with your colleagues.”

Must be nice: 240 identical “high-tech” (but somewhat small: 150 square feet) rooms, essentially dedicated to Meta. And their address is 2 Meta Way… What do you want to bet that Meta’s electric buses will be stopping there as well?

That covers my exploration of the area. For my return trip I elected to come back through a part of Redwood City I don’t get to often enough: I crossed over Highway 101 at Marsh Road, and then headed for home along Bay Road. In doing so, I passed the former site of Nazareth Ice Oasis, which was Redwood City’s last ice rink and is now being transformed into offices:

After taking a break at the lovely little Andrew Spinas park at Second Avenue and Bay Road, I pushed on to check on the new (but not yet open) CVS Pharmacy at Bay and Woodside roads, and then walked by the Broadway Plaza development just across the street. Excavation has been going on there for some time, but it appears that the digging for the end of the garage closest to Chestnut Street is now pretty much complete:

That did it for this week. It was a great walk, and I was really glad to get the exercise. Although, it’ll probably be a while before I walk quite so far again…

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This weekend — Saturday, August 12 — marks the first performance of Shakespeare in the Park, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s annual set of free performances in Redwood City’s Red Morton Park. For the next three weekends, they’ll be performing Cymbeline on their outdoor stage at the Valota Road end of Red Morton Park. In total there will be six performances, one each on Saturday and Sunday from August 12 through August 27, at 6 p.m. The show runs for 90 minutes, with no intermission. Bring a lawn chair and/or blanket, and, if you like, food and drink. Going by last year’s performance, be prepared to be sitting in full sun the entire time (there is very limited natural shade). Umbrellas are discouraged — they block the view from the folks behind you — so use sunscreen and/or wear a hat.