Standing tall

In late 2007, Stanford University opened its Redwood City Outpatient Center in the old Excite@Home buildings at 450 Broadway, having purchased those buildings in 2005. In 2013, the Redwood City council adopted a precise plan (and certified an environmental impact report) for a 48-acre Stanford campus to replace Redwood City’s former Technology Park, which sat adjacent to (or possibly encompassed) the Excite@Home buildings. Construction on a portion — the first phase — of Stanford’s administrative (nonacademic) campus then got underway in 2017, across Broadway from Stanford’s functioning medical center.

Having worked on plans for the second phases of its medical and administrative campuses for several years — and having put those plans on hold through much of the pandemic — Stanford finally returned to Redwood City’s approving bodies with the next phases of both. On the administrative campus side, it proposed two additional five-story buildings along Broadway to accompany the four that stand there today, along with a new parking garage and a small amenity building. On the medical side, the university proposed a large medical office building plus a new parking garage. Although both proposals were approved by the city in 2023, Stanford has so far shown no inclination to actually construct the additional administrative campus buildings. That is not the case with its medical campus, however. In the last week or two, demolition got underway to clear the space needed for the large new medical office building and its accompanying parking garage.

A week or two ago, I observed that the site had been surrounded by construction fencing. That spurred me to visit the site this week. I was able to see signs of demolition on the pair of two-story buildings that will be replaced by the new medical office building: Ampex’s former Redwood City headquarters building and a smaller one that stands just behind it (510 Broadway). As well, the asphalt parking lot that surrounded the pair of buildings on two sides had also been largely or entirely torn up. I could see heaps of large asphalt chunks standing ready to be hauled away.

Alongside Highway 101, where much of that asphalt once sat, the work crews will be constructing a new parking garage to accommodate most of the vehicles that will one day make their way to the new medical office building. This garage will look similar to the one that stands behind the existing medical center buildings, although it will accommodate more cars (905, versus the existing garage’s 565). As for the new medical office building, it’ll be a big one: 265,000 square feet in a nine-story (162 feet tall) building. Note that the existing buildings making up today’s Stanford Health Care center are just four stories in height; this one will literally tower above those.

Although construction on the medical office building is soon to get underway, Stanford’s hesitation in constructing its approved academic campus buildings is being reflected in that project, too. For one thing, although the shell of the building will be constructed, only a few floors will actually be built out at this time. In the future, once anticipated demand for the space provided by this new medical office building grows, additional floors will be built out. In addition, the approved plans for the project show a pedestrian skyway connecting this new building to the existing cluster, enabling patients and staff to safely and easily move between the old buildings and the new without having to negotiate the looping roads leading from Broadway to the new parking structure. However, it appears that the skyway won’t be constructed at this time.

I’m excited to watch this new building be constructed. One can question the need for some of the office buildings being built elsewhere in Redwood City, but I find it hard to complain about additional medical facilities serving the general public. While the new building’s height will make it stand out in an area that isn’t known for its particularly tall buildings, this building will take visual cues from the academic campus buildings just across Broadway and thus should otherwise fit in fairly well.

Greg Wilson is the creator of Walking Redwood City, a blog inspired by his walks throughout Redwood City and adjacent communities. He can be reached at greg@walkingRedwoodCity.com. Follow Greg on Twitter @walkingRWC.