This is pretty blasé... Four years and this is the best version we get?

I know how hard the design approval and entitlement processes can be, but why can't Palo Alto get beyond 3 stories when CalTrain and ECR are right there? Why is there no housing component?

This building doesn't look like its designed for 2020. Palo Alto deserves better. Better City Approval process on both sides, and better buildings and development for the community.

"The new development will merge three lots into one"

Wish I could do that in my R-1 neighborhood. Want a nice cottage on 1/2-acre.

@musical . What is stopping you? Years ago Steve Jobs bought the property behind him and pissed people off when he tore down the house to make his backyard bigger. Mark Zuckerberg bought the properties around his to make a compound.

What (other than money) stops you from buying all the properties around yours and tearing down the buildings?

/marc

When we lose retail and it is replaced with a new development it brings in different types of retail.

When San Antonio was redone, we lost places like a useful shoe shop, a useful sports shop, a useful drugstore, and in its place we have a mattress shop and a high end jewelers. I used the old retail regularly, never bought a mattress and have bought a couple of Christmas gifts in the jewelers but there is not an equal comparison between useful everyday retail and luxury retail.

@under-developed - This IS a 3 story building. Not every new building has to make a statement, so you are right, this is a kind of boring background building, which is just fine.
On the other hand, you are also right - there should be at least a few apartments on top.

@resident - There is no retail there now, only services. So, who knows what will go in?

@Sue Dremann - When writing about buildings, especially new ones, and particularly those going through design review, please tell us the names of the architects.

^ Looks like Brereton Architects, of Montgomery Street, San Francisco.
Can't tell which principals specifically.

Interesting to note this developer could have used the PTOD zoning designation to get more square feet if a residential component was included in the project but chose not to.
The PTOD was hoping to encourage housing in mixed use projects near a Caltrain stop.

This project choosing not use it is a good reminder that
Commercial is still more desirable to developers than residential and that developers not cities build housing and that developers build what gets them the biggest economic return