Two weeks plus one day from today (as I write this) will be the nation’s 250th. Redwood City has always put on a pretty good show for the Fourth, and as you might expect, given the unique nature of this year’s holiday, this year’s events should be extra special. Along with the usual parade — which the organizers continue to bill as “the largest Independence Day parade in Northern California” — I was delighted to note that the Port of Redwood City will once again be putting on a proper fireworks display. You may recall that last year the port opted for drones, rather than fireworks. Prior to that event I used my Daily Journal column to express my (and others’) misgivings: although the Port’s fireworks shows are indeed best observed from within the Port itself, they can nevertheless be seen from countless places around the area (and even from well outside Redwood City). Whereas a drone show is focused on a narrowly defined area, in this case being the public area of the Port; if you can see it at all from elsewhere, it likely won’t look at all as the show designer intended.

Redwood City’s fireworks display this year is scheduled for “approximately 9:30 p.m.” on the Fourth. As for the parade, that kicks off earlier that day, at 10 a.m.. It appears to be taking its usual route, but see the website for a map to plan your preferred viewing spot. That parade, of course, will then be followed by the usual festival, centered on Courthouse Square but also spilling out onto a couple of adjacent streets. There will be numerous arts and crafts booths, food trucks, the typically amazing chalk art, a “battle of the bands” (featuring Stanford’s band), a kid’s area, and a magician, clowns, and face painting. As you would expect, Redwood City’s celebration should be fun for the whole family.

Regular readers of this blog know that I find plenty to celebrate most weeks in Redwood City. This week, I’m celebrating the fact that a housing project I had assumed was long dead, given the lack of progress since the project was approved, has been revived with an all-new design (which will have to go back through the city’s lengthy approval process, of course). Previously referred to by the city as “Redwood City Discovery,” the project is now simply being called 1330 El Camino Real. The new design has the same footprint as the old: it intends to consume the spaces currently occupied by Happy Donuts, King Mattress & Furniture, and The Record Man (plus that business’s parking lot), along with the adjacent parcel at 114 Madison Ave. that today contains a four-plex. But the new design is taller than the previous: eight stories (~98 feet tall) vs. the earlier design’s six stories (64 feet tall). Curiously, that extra height does not mean extra units. In fact, this new design has fewer units than before: 126, as compared with the previous design’s 130.

Comparing the preliminary plans of the two versions of the project, it appears that the primary reason for the extra two stories comes down to parking. The original design relied upon a single-level underground parking garage with a great many mechanical stackers to accommodate 110 cars and 22 motorcycles. The new design eliminates the underground garage in favor of two above-ground parking levels that can accommodate 124 cars (using a smaller number of parking stackers) and 36 bicycles. Most of the building’s ground floor is to be configured as a parking garage, with the rest being the building’s lobby plus a number of utility rooms. The second floor would be almost entirely parking. Apartments begin on the building’s third floor and will go up all the way to the eighth. The third floor plans also show a fitness room, a “clubroom,” and a 4,000-square-foot outdoor courtyard for use by the building’s residents and their guests. The eighth floor is slated to have an 1,100-square foot roof deck plus an 800-square foot “sky lounge” along with its many apartments.

As for the slight drop in total unit count, that is probably due largely to the change in the unit mix. In order to fit so many apartments in, the design approved in January 2023 was composed almost entirely of studios: 105 of the building’s 130 units. (Of the rest, 14 were to be one-bedroom units, eight would have had two bedrooms, and three would have had three bedrooms.) Compare that with the latest design’s mix: 30 studios, 56 one-bedroom units, and 40 apartments with two bedrooms each. This new design makes for a more family-friendly building, one that will appeal to a broader audience. Oh, and in the new design 26 of the 126 total apartments will be made affordable (the previous design also designated 26 of its 130 apartments as affordable).

Lastly, the look of the building has changed rather significantly. Here is a rendering of the design as it was originally approved:

And here is a rendering from the same vantage point of the new proposed design:

As you can see, the new proposal is for a more sober, sleeker, and less playful design. Of course, this latest is just a preliminary proposal; as it works its way through the city’s process, some aspects — including the look — may well change. Then again, they may not. Time will tell…

Not far away, the seven-story, 176-unit affordable housing project underway at 112 Vera Ave. continues to make progress. But the progress it is making causes me to be more curious than ever. Because this project was billed as using modular construction, I was taken aback when I saw a stack of framing lumber atop the two-level concrete podium:

However, there wasn’t nearly enough lumber to actually start building walls. And from what I could tell, it seems that the lumber was being used to construct temporary rails near the edge of the podium, possibly for safety. So, constructing the building’s upper five levels using some form of modular construction still seems possible. Certainly, we should know soon.

Over at Broadway Village, the three apartment buildings are pretty much done, although there is still work to do on the grounds immediately surrounding the buildings. For instance, the crews are constructing what appears to be a driveway leading into the center of the property from Broadway along the side of the building that fronts onto Broadway:

The preliminary plans I have don’t show a driveway there: they show trees and walkways leading to the property’s central public space. So perhaps what looks like a roadway is indeed going to be that tree-lined walkway. Or, perhaps it is to be a driveway that will only exist until the second half of the large parcel is developed (with three office buildings), a driveway that can be used by trucks and construction equipment. We’ll see…

On the subject of central public spaces, the one that will make up much of the space between Stanford Health Care’s newest medical office building and its existing Redwood City facility is not yet seeing much activity:

But of course the new building itself, and the parking garage being constructed behind it, are still the main focus. The central area will likely be developed late in the game, after the need for materials staging and heavy equipment has passed. In any case, here is a recent picture of that new building, showing that it is looking pretty complete from the outside (but undoubtedly still has a long way to go on the inside):

As far as the building’s interior goes, unless the plan has changed and I haven’t heard about it, only a couple of floors will be made usable at this stage, with the rest being built out at a later date as needed.

East of the freeway, on the Syufy site, the Villa Sport athletic club building’s metal structure is looking pretty good:

I find it curious that the structure so far is L-shaped; the building plans show a building that is largely rectangular. Thus, I expect that the interior of the ‘L’ will be filled in, either with more metal framing or with construction of a different sort. Monitoring the construction of this particular building is going to be a challenge, given the limits on how I can view it. The above viewpoint is by far my best, and I cannot get any closer without trespassing on private property, which I’m not willing to do. Clearly, I need to start hauling around my long lens…

I really like Jardin de Niños park, at the corner of Middlefield Road and Chestnut Street. Thus, I celebrated when, many years ago, the city purchased a small lot (containing a run-down house) adjacent to the park and announced plans for a park expansion. That was quite a few years ago; the expansion was put on hold for several years in part so that the lot could be used as a staging area for the Middlefield Road renovation. The expansion finally got underway around the beginning of 2025, and is slated to be completed this July. But that completion date may be threatened due to the glacial pace being taken by the construction of the gazebo. The gazebo’s metal structure was installed well over a year ago, but the fiberglass cladding that will give the structure its character is seemingly being manufactured by the artist piecemeal. I was fortunate to be present at the end of last September when the first pieces — the cupola — were installed. After that, it took almost exactly six months for the next pieces — two roof panels — to be installed:

Since then, only two other roof panels have been added. Recently, though, I noticed some large foam pieces, pieces I presume the artist cobbled together as a template for, apparently, the curved ends of the roof:

Perhaps things will move quicker once the roof is entirely on?

Two final things of note from my recent walks around the city. First, the long-empty building and parking lot at the corner of Charter Street and Bay Road that years ago were being proposed as the location for a new private school finally have a tenant. Together, they now comprise a Rivian service center:

Here’s the parking lot, from which vehicles can enter the building and be worked on:

An interesting bit of trivia: the building, at 860 Charter St., is in Redwood City while the adjacent parking lot is not. The lot is in an unincorporated part of San Mateo County. Just one of the oddities of Redwood City’s border.

Secondly, the storefront at 2070 Broadway that was a sandwich shop (Broadway Sandwich Market) is becoming…a sandwich shop:

Although there is a website and an Instagram page for a business called The Sandwich Guy, that particular business is located in the Philippines, so this isn’t that. Having not yet heard anything else about this new venture, we’ll likely have to wait until it is open — which in fact it may be very soon: note the sign on the window stating “Coming soon in June!”. I like a good sandwich, so perhaps I’ll be celebrating when they open. Perhaps.