I’m traveling this week, in Phoenix, where tomorrow’s high is expected to be 76, and Monday’s is currently predicted to reach 80 degrees! Before I left, though, I spent a bunch of time prowling around the ELCO Yards project, photographing the various buildings under construction. The project is zooming along, especially the building on El Camino Real between Beech and Cedar Streets. Unlike the two buildings being constructed between Main Street and the Caltrain tracks, which are being constructed using a lot of site-formed concrete pillars, the building currently underway on El Camino Real is largely being structured from steel beams being bolted and/or welded together.

When I was a kid I spent a lot of time playing with my family’s Erector Set. I loved constructing towers, machines, and whatever else I could dream up by bolting together thin metal girders and thicker metal plates. I spent a lot of time attaching bolts to nuts, and later un-attaching them. As with Lego (another toy I not only played with in my youth, but continue to enjoy today, thanks to the complex sets aimed at an older crowd that the Lego company is putting out these days), I appreciated how, when a project I was working on wasn’t coming out right, I could easily disassemble part of it and try something new. The workers putting together the ELCO Yards building on parcel B can’t quite do that, of course — each metal beam they are using is custom-built for its place, but watching them use massive bolts to connect the various beams together reminds me a lot of my childhood days.

In just the course of two or three weeks this building went from nothing (well, the three-level underground garage upon which the building is being erected is not nothing, but that is entirely underground and as of a couple of weeks ago there was pretty much nothing on the site above ground, other than the tower crane that is being used to help place all of those heavy metal beams) to this:

I took the above photograph from over the fence along El Camino Real; around the other side, from along Cedar Street, the project looked like this when I was last there:

When complete, this particular building will be four stories tall, and will mostly consist of office space. However, it stands out among the four office buildings in that the entirety of the ground floor on the El Camino Real side is intended for a “family entertainment tenant”, which may mean a roller rink or a bowling alley or some such. On the Cedar Street side, also on the ground floor, there will be a childcare center, with an outdoor play yard right along Cedar Street.

The family entertainment space will be a large one: the plans show 16,790 square feet on the ground floor, and an additional 2,025 square feet on a mezzanine level. The ground-floor portion is designed to be as open as possible, to enable a variety of possible tenants. There are a few posts here and there, but it is for the most part pretty wide open:

Back along Main Street, the two buildings being constructed between that street and the Caltrain tracks is rising much more slowly, since each supporting pillar needs to be formed from rebar, encased in plywood, and then filled with concrete. But those two buildings got underway first, so they are still in the lead. Here is the building down closest to the Main Street Dog Agility Park:

As you can probably see, this building will look quite different than the previous one: this building has rounded, soft corners. When done, it should look something like this:

Contrast that with its partner building, which is being built next to the above, but over next to Chestnut Street:

(Whoever did the above rendering got very confused; the hills you see in the distance are not there, of course; this view is to the southeast, whereas those hills are west of Redwood City.)

I refer to these buildings as “partners” because although they look nothing alike, they’ll stand side-by-side atop a single large two-level underground parking garage. The garage entrance (and exit) will be off of Main Street, between the two buildings:

As for the partner building (on the right in the above photo) it is the one in the above rendering that looks a bit like a factory. That building is also proceeding somewhat slowly due to all of the concrete work needed, but perhaps because it doesn’t have any curves it seems to be moving just a bit faster than its next-door neighbor.

The two buildings along Main Street will consist primarily of offices, although the rounded building will have a small retail space on the corner closest to the dog park. And the small stand-alone building you see in the previous rendering will be a restaurant space, open to the public (as will be the the green open plaza you can see in front of the restaurant). That will presumably be built much later: one of the cranes being used to construct the large office building closest to Chestnut Street is currently standing where the restaurant will eventually go.

That’s three of the development’s four office buildings. The fourth is across Main Street from the above buildings, and also along Cedar Street. That one is the laggard of the group; its underground garage is still under construction, although parts of it have finally reached ground level:

Ultimately the project’s four office buildings will be accompanied by two high-rise residential buildings, but the parcels upon which they will be constructed (along Maple Street) are being used to stage materials and equipment for the four buildings under construction. Thus, those buildings likely won’t be started until the four buildings now under construction are much farther along.

That’ll do it for this week. Stay safe and dry, everyone!