Existing Building



While Broadway Street's thriving shops and bistros support a sidewalk community that has made Redwood City one of the most successful downtowns in the Bay Area, the current building at 2300 Broadway doesn’t fit its exceptional context with a site given over to surface parking and a squat, beige bank building, it offers little to the life of downtown aside from the function of the bank itself.





Site Potential



Courthouse Square, located adjacent to the 2300 Broadway site, is the principal gathering place of the Redwood City community. Host to over 70 events a year, bringing the community together for movies, music, and cultural events, the Square is an incredible place to be. It is a known and beloved landmark that should be recognized, supported and improved by its neighbors. Our proposed project has the potential to create spaces that can support and build upon the placemaking success of Courthouse Square, increasing its offerings and opportunities.



Caltrain’s downtown Redwood City station is located only a block away from the proposed Project. Caltrain offers a traffic-free way for downtown works and visitors to come downtown; as a result the Downtown Precise Plan calls for increased transit-oriented development in close proximity to the station. Our proposed project leverages this transit connection with added transportation demand measures, like secure bike lockers, showers, improved sidewalks and new pedestrian pathways.



While the site is and has been oriented towards commercial activity to capitalize on the transit-oriented location of Downtown, it needs to be supported by new housing. As affordable housing is a critical issue for all of Redwood City, the project has partnered on an affordable housing solution as part of our proposal. We have secured a site adjacent to Downtown, less than a ½ mile away from the project and within a 10 minute walk of the Caltrain station, to serve as a site for a permanently affordable, family-focused housing project.

Principles of Place



The historic context of downtown is the key placemaking factor driving all design decisions on the Project. With connection to place as a driving design principle, 2300 Broadway will respond to its context by:



1. Respecting the Courthouse Museum. While the Downtown Precise Plan allows 136' feet maximum height, based on feedback from the community, the Project proposes to cap height at its parapet at 110' 8” to respect the signature urban form of the Courthouse Museum’s historic dome.
2. Preserving Coastal Redwoods. While the Downtown Precise Plan does not allow setbacks at grade to support activity along the public realm, adhering to this standard would remove the Redwoods on the corner of Broadway & Hamilton. Therefore, the Project sets back along a portion of Broadway & Hamilton, preserving the Redwoods and creating a valuable outdoor public space.
3. Framing the Square. To further enhance views to and reduce shading on Courthouse Square, the Project’s upper stories step back above the ground floor base to create a unified space that frames Redwood Grove and Courthouse Square.
4. Linking Downtown Open Spaces. Strengthening walkability, the Project creates Hamilton Green as a pedestrian only north-south connection to Caltrain, and creates direct east-west connections between Courthouse Square and onsite open spaces that will be improved and maintained by the Project, like the Redwood Grove.

Gatekeeper Approval



The Downtown Precise Plan, adopted in 2010, specified maximum allowable development for certain development categories including commercial office and retail; and as the Plan has worked towards achieving its goals of activation and transit oriented development, it has reached the limit available to new office. However, interest in additional transit-oriented office, as an engine for downtown and a preferred alternative to car-oriented office in the outskirts of Redwood City, has been strong. As a result, the City Council held a ”Gatekeeper process” to review projects that would exceed the cap, specifically considering projects that offered public benefits including Affordable Housing Contributions and New or Additional Park Space.



After a strenuous review process lasting multiple hearings, the City Council voted 6-0 to unanimously approved 2300 Broadway and 609 Price Avenue to advance through the Gatekeeper process, due to its overall program and public benefits proposal, and begin site-specific entitlement efforts. Ultimately 2300 Broadway’s proposal to create 80 affordable units at 609 Price helped push project through the Gatekeeper process. A General Plan amendment has now been initiated for 2300 Broadway for an approximately 225,000 sf commercial building, and we look forward to working with the community to define and outline the specifics of our public benefit proposal.