Continuous evolution

Originally, the idea was to combine three lots and construct two tall towers (the second being 19 stories, or nearly 228 feet tall) that together would contain 378 apartments, 70,000 square feet of space for residential amenities, 2,800 square feet of retail and parking for 164 vehicles. Now, however, the project will no longer span multiple parcels but will stand solely on the one parcel at 910 Marshall St., where, today, Kaiser Permanente has a single-story medical office. Replacing Kaiser’s building would be a single 21-story tower — 258 feet in height — containing 222 apartments, a little over 33,000 square feet for amenities, 1,210 square feet of retail and a two-level internal parking garage containing 95 parking spaces (24 of which would be served by valet). As before, the building would be exclusively for seniors and would include a memory care facility.

This project remains under the auspices of SB 330, which continues to give it a lot of leeway. But 21 stories is still substantially beyond the city’s eight-story maximum for that parcel, so it’ll be interesting to see how this project progresses. At least it lies within the city’s downtown, where you’d expect to find taller buildings. It is also a reasonable distance from Redwood City’s Courthouse Square, so, if built as currently proposed, it wouldn’t overshadow the historic building. I do expect some further pushback, though, since the proposed building is more than twice the height of the tallest building in Redwood City today. Then again, 222 apartments — none of which would be affordable, sadly — would be hard to say no to.

Four blocks away, but still on Marshall Street, another housing project proposal — also submitted under SB 330, as it turns out — also underwent a recent update. This would be a much smaller, more conventional project: 32 for-sale condominiums (five affordable at the moderate-income level) to be built at 1320 Marshall St., where today there is one large single-story building that fronts onto Broadway. Dubbed “Redwood Square,” this project would consist of four four-story buildings. Two of the buildings would stretch side by side along Broadway while the remaining two would stand end-on to Marshall Street.

Originally, the two buildings along Broadway would have been a single building stretching the entire width of the property. All of the buildings would have had an industrial feel, being faced with various flat slabs of stucco and metal vertical siding and having flat roofs. Now, the buildings are being given something of a Spanish feel, with rounded arches and sloping red tile roofs.

Except for the two units bordering Marshall Street, the condominiums in this development are slated to be narrow and laid out somewhat unusually. At ground level, each would have a narrow garage accommodating two cars nose to tail. The living spaces above are designed to span two of these garages, making those spaces 22 feet wide. But those living spaces would be divided between two units vertically, with the entirety of the second floor and roughly one-third of the third floor being dedicated to one unit, and the remaining one-third of the third floor and the entirety of the fourth floor being dedicated to another. Thus, one of the units will be one flight up from the garage with two of another unit’s bedrooms above its master suite, while the other unit would begin two flights up from the garage with no one above any of its bedrooms.

Like so many, both projects are making good visible progress, thanks to the recently published updated plans on Redwood City’s Development Projects website. I look forward to following their continued progress and will be interested to see how the final projects — if built — compare with their developer’s original vision.