The project: Elco Yards is a new, 670,000-sf mixed-use redevelopment on 8.3 acres and six city blocks. Four city blocks were demolished to construct four new life science buildings with below-grade parking (The Nest The Shop, The Loft, and The Mill). The project also included six blocks of public infrastructure improvements.

The goal: Create a structural design for each building that accommodates owner requirements, future flexibility, and constructability.

Design highlights: The buildings were designed to achieve LEED Gold certification for sustainable design and featured customized structural designs to preserve openness and architectural designs while meeting stringent seismic and vibration demands.

Challenge: Evolving laboratory requirements and prospective tenant needs. Solution: Frequent revisions to mechanical system loadings required multiple redesigns of the structural framework to support new mechanical layouts, penetrations, and distribution pathways. This process demanded constant coordination to ensure conduit routing, slab penetrations, and equipment integration remained constructible and fully aligned.

Challenge: A mid design change upgraded the vibration criteria for an elevated floor supporting sensitive lab functions. Solution: Completing a major lateral system reconfiguration while early foundation work was already underway required precise communication, accelerated calculations, and creative sequencing solutions to avoid impacts to the critical path.

Challenge: Two buildings feature double height pavilion spaces, long spanning trussed roof forms, and transparent glazed facades. Solution: Achieving these design goals required a hybrid structural system incorporating concrete, structural steel, and custom moment resisting frames tailored to the irregular geometry and open interior volumes.

Challenge: High groundwater levels required foundation tie down anchors to resist hydrostatic uplift. Solution: To minimize dewatering costs, the team evaluated construction sequencing and calculated when the combined weight of the partially completed structure, supplemented by tie downs, would safely counteract uplift forces.

The outcome: Elco Yards is one of Redwood City’s most significant redevelopment efforts — transforming underutilized downtown blocks into a large-scale, transit-oriented mixed-use district with life science office space, housing, retail, and community amenities.

Photos provided by © Jason O’Rear