Redwood Roller Rink 1303 Main St, Redwood City, CA. Awesome Mid-Century design. It was opened in 1952. Source: Ami "Tsunami" F.
Redwood Roller Rink 1303 Main St, Redwood City, CA. Ami's friends all exciting to go skating are pictured with the sign in background and the rink, of course. Source: Ami "Tsunami" F.
Redwood Roller Rink 1303 Main St, Redwood City, CA. Pictured left to right: Ami "Tsunami" F. and rink manager Robyn Haleber. Sorry the names are blurred when I downloaded. I do not know why. Sorry about that, Ami! Source: Ami "Tsunami" F.
Redwood Roller Rink 1303 Main St, Redwood City, CA. Uh oh, looked like skaters did NOT tuck in their skates! Hmm, that was a problem at every rink. Maybe start raising price for 2 dollars more and if they get tucked in, they can earn 2 dollars back? PLUS shoes should be shelved as an exchange. That way, it will limited to ONE person to return, not many of them to trick staff. No way. This might be a good solution, operators! Source: Ami "Tsunami" F.
Redwood Roller Rink 1303 Main St, Redwood City, CA. Interesting area. See the ceiling had gloss look and that helped to shine brighter. Although it was dark because the rink on the left was in disco lights mode. What made more interesting was that the poster appeared to be like a movie poster. I think that is a light box. I had a client who makes movie poster light boxes and I designed their 2 versions for them. Not this one because this is a jumbo! My! Those purses! Anyone can sneak in and steal ID, cards, cash... Source: Ami "Tsunami" F.
Redwood Roller Rink 1303 Main St, Redwood City, CA. The side of the rink. Pretty narrow, and if you skate by, can be dangerous because if you did not pay attention, you could trip because of the skinny steel or iron legs on those benches. But seemly it was fine for 65 years! Source: Ami "Tsunami" F.
Redwood Roller Rink 1303 Main St, Redwood City, CA. Few skaters on the rink at the time. Looks like Saturday morning or afternoon because of a lesson class they had on the right side of the rink you can see. The female skater on the left seemly trying to balance herself. I take she was new. Source: Ami "Tsunami" F.
Redwood Roller Rink 1303 Main St, Redwood City, CA. This window was purposed to have Jim view his skaters to behave and correct their skating forms. I can understand how and why because you will be viewed like a patron watching skaters compete from the stands. Third dimension, of course. No wonder champions were produced well at this rink. You can see the tiring rink that needed a new floor and new windows, new ceiling panels.. a total renovation would be needed. Of course, you can see one of those figure skater in the photo. She is about to make a spin of some kind. Source: The Six Fifty 21 September 2017.
Redwood Roller Rink 1303 Main St, Redwood City, CA. Hey, happy birthday girl! Seeing her gifts as the father of a child watching skaters skate on the rink. Source: Ami "Tsunami" F.
Redwood Roller Rink 1303 Main St, Redwood City, CA. 29 times champion Ashley Clifford pauses on the rink in between practices. I wonder now where she will skate and practice? Hope there is a rink she can go to. The black letters, appeared to be vinyl graphic decal on the wall. It is Ariel font. Source: The Six Fifty 21 September 2017.
Redwood Roller Rink 1303 Main St, Redwood City, CA
Never mind the wood that it had for a name. I never heard of a roller rink with Redwood floor. That is because the Redwood is very soft and lightweight. Never mind that, it was named because of the town called Redwood. Redwood Roller Rink was on 1303 Main Street, Redwood City, California, not the wood itself. Yes, Redwood trees are awesome to look at because of its height and sheer size that can be wide as a house!
This one I am referring to is the roller rink. It was operational from 1952 to 2017. It ran for a long time. Ami "Tsumani" F. was a friend of the manager of this rink and was a skater at Aloha Roller Palace. That rink went through name changes and ended with San Jose Skate at that location, not the rebooted version in the same town.
Interesting to noticed about the opening, it was a bit of disastrously start for the long time beloved rink that brought out many artistic and champions from that rink. Just prior to opening day, a train rushed by and the roof caved in! I am sure it was quickly repaired with stronger reinforced roof with Steel Trusses so that it would not happen again and designated to absorb vibrations. Throughout the years when a train roared by the rink, skaters would feel vibrations and seen it shake. Excellent! This rink should have been an excellent role model for universities and agencies including Federal level and State level and even town level because California is famous for earthquakes. It is in the Ring of Fire Zone. Yes, earthquakes often occurred in the Ring of Fire which is named after because of volcanoes are in the quake zones.
Architecture and Geographical major professors should discuss this in their textbook with this design how they had to rebuilt quickly to repair after the first one collapsed. I recommend colleges use this example in their textbooks and their lectures. Of course, we all started to learn about architecture as toddlers because of the Three Little Pigs story. This matches to the experience the operator and manager had in 1952.
And politicians should use this to pass laws on earthquake proofing. There are already laws in the books for about 50 to 60 years now. Just after this rink roof collapse. Perhaps it was already known and saw why and passed it. It was an excellent "test" they had but not intentioned to collapse though. No one was injured in this incident. 65 years it was excellent with the Segmental Arch roof design.
I know this will be off subject. Having been to Los Angeles in 1985 to visit Art Center College of Design, I recalled their building including the bridge they have and sitting on a Pasadena, California hill just near the Rose Bowl and Jet Propulsion Laboratory where scientists are toying their adult toys called rovers on the planet Mars. The building was designed to withstand 8.5 and they had an 8.5 plus quake about 30 years ago (this is 2021) and I called and they were glad to be tested with an actual earthquake and they said everything was fine. They use Criss-Cross Steel Beams so that the shaking would be absorbed and move in a way that it would absorb the energy. Maybe Redwood Roller Rink had something with the roof like this. Photographs shown above was not enough. Just exterior you can see looked like any other arched roofs I have seen on Dead-Rinks and in real life.
This rink really made a very interesting case and if I was an Architect major, I would write a 20 page Dissertation to earn a Masters Degree on this rink design.
“Papa” Jim Pollard, and his wife and former skating partner Suzie, bought the rink in 1969 and owned it until his passing in March 2017. It was Jim Pollard who transformed the rink into an international beacon of artistic excellence; his legendary knowledge, generosity, and passion for artistic skating that led to its niche fame. For example, an artistic skater named, Ashley Clifford was trained there at her home rink at Redwood City rink and went on to travel the world for competitions and won 29 national championships! Maybe she was the AJ Foyt, Richard Petty, Tiger Woods, Brad Hulings, Tucker Hibbert, Mike Jordan, and Pete Rose, and "Dummy" Hoy as well as Hank Aaron of Roller Skating. (Those men I mentioned were, in respectively, Indy car, NASCAR, PGA, Sno-Pro snowmobile racing, Sno-Cross, NBA, and MLB in hitting, base stealing, and home runs). (Hey Baseball Veterans, why isn't Hoy in the Hall of Fame? Got something you do not like about him? Is it because he was Deaf? Hmm!? Baseball Fans, time to find a different sport to watch. There is roller skating!)
It was the very same Operator, Jim Pollard who was instrumental in setting rules and regulations for roller skating competitions with the FIRS (Federation Internacionale de Roller Sports-- in Italian). It is headquartered in Italy.
This rink was considered the best or one of the best artistic roller skating club in the nation, if not, the world.
The Interior.
The interior thanks to the photos I can see were taken in more recent years that it had maintained its classic look likely the entire time it was operational. Forest Green carpets and paint, Off-White paint on the walls. The floor appeared to be Concrete painted in White. The whole thing feels like you are in one of those forestry parks.
The ceiling panels were glossy White which gave reflexive lights on the ceiling. Those panels were common back in 1950s. They are making a comeback in 2010s and 2020s. This concept has a purpose to shine more in the rink because of the disco lights, and because of standard lights can shine brighter inside. You can see with an excellent photo showing where the snack bar is with the picnic tables are. In fact, with this kind of panel, it is energy effective because of it can shine brighter in the era of LED lights and energy saving.
Nothing interior-wise to match to the exterior Mid-Century Design. It gave that very basic small-rink feel. The colors were proper because of the size. White makes the room look bigger.
They had some newer wall art. The permanent advertisement was on the wall as the name of the rink looked like it was a vinyl graphic out of a cutter to make the letters and signs and pasted that on the back wall.
The side was quite narrow and looked like not enough room. Just a couple of games there and benches. Nothing exciting about the interior design though it was basic 1950s look. I really do love that green. It is actually my favorite green. Ahh, those days I sure miss (1980s was the decade it was very popular and I missed that decade because I lived through that, not 1950s. Oh well).
The Exterior.
A true classic 1950s Mid-Century Design with Segmental Arch roof and the frontage showed a true classic Mid-Century thin canopy over the front door and old Fire Engine Red signage on it. Not a Googie, Not a MCM but a Mid-Century Design that was popular and common of its day. The color of bricks/blocks were common at the time-- they were called Yellow Bricks. Not that Yellow Bricks you seen in Frank Baum's story about Dorothy and Toto traveled on that road. Not that Yellow. (MCM means Mid-Century Modernism). There are a difference with the styles. It was in its early form before the height of its design by 1956-ish. This design was carried over from 1940s and lasted till 1965 before the Browning of America Architecture Era began. I could say for the Googie's Architecture fans, this is pretty close to Googie's or MCM though to make their arguments. To be honest, I love the design! Truly 1950s, MC, almost Googie's, and almost MCM all in one. The interior was quite not like the exterior at all.
The design as I mentioned above has had reinforced roof because of the collapse just before they opened the rink in 1952.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: White paint Polyurethane coated Concrete Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built/Renovations: N/A. Demolished: N/A.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Trusses Cinderblocks with Yellow Bricks - Walled Warehouse - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: (Overall)-- 1952 to 10 pm, Saturday, 30 September 2017.
Reason for Closure: Jim Pollard's Death in March 2017,
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also photos/articles. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at [email protected]. Thank you. You can also use this form.
Sources:
Email- Ami "Tsunami" F.
The Five Sixty - lengthy article about the legendary rink. PDF version.
Date of issue: 04 October 2021.
For office use only: 10
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:3 and 16.
This one I am referring to is the roller rink. It was operational from 1952 to 2017. It ran for a long time. Ami "Tsumani" F. was a friend of the manager of this rink and was a skater at Aloha Roller Palace. That rink went through name changes and ended with San Jose Skate at that location, not the rebooted version in the same town.
Interesting to noticed about the opening, it was a bit of disastrously start for the long time beloved rink that brought out many artistic and champions from that rink. Just prior to opening day, a train rushed by and the roof caved in! I am sure it was quickly repaired with stronger reinforced roof with Steel Trusses so that it would not happen again and designated to absorb vibrations. Throughout the years when a train roared by the rink, skaters would feel vibrations and seen it shake. Excellent! This rink should have been an excellent role model for universities and agencies including Federal level and State level and even town level because California is famous for earthquakes. It is in the Ring of Fire Zone. Yes, earthquakes often occurred in the Ring of Fire which is named after because of volcanoes are in the quake zones.
Architecture and Geographical major professors should discuss this in their textbook with this design how they had to rebuilt quickly to repair after the first one collapsed. I recommend colleges use this example in their textbooks and their lectures. Of course, we all started to learn about architecture as toddlers because of the Three Little Pigs story. This matches to the experience the operator and manager had in 1952.
And politicians should use this to pass laws on earthquake proofing. There are already laws in the books for about 50 to 60 years now. Just after this rink roof collapse. Perhaps it was already known and saw why and passed it. It was an excellent "test" they had but not intentioned to collapse though. No one was injured in this incident. 65 years it was excellent with the Segmental Arch roof design.
I know this will be off subject. Having been to Los Angeles in 1985 to visit Art Center College of Design, I recalled their building including the bridge they have and sitting on a Pasadena, California hill just near the Rose Bowl and Jet Propulsion Laboratory where scientists are toying their adult toys called rovers on the planet Mars. The building was designed to withstand 8.5 and they had an 8.5 plus quake about 30 years ago (this is 2021) and I called and they were glad to be tested with an actual earthquake and they said everything was fine. They use Criss-Cross Steel Beams so that the shaking would be absorbed and move in a way that it would absorb the energy. Maybe Redwood Roller Rink had something with the roof like this. Photographs shown above was not enough. Just exterior you can see looked like any other arched roofs I have seen on Dead-Rinks and in real life.
This rink really made a very interesting case and if I was an Architect major, I would write a 20 page Dissertation to earn a Masters Degree on this rink design.
“Papa” Jim Pollard, and his wife and former skating partner Suzie, bought the rink in 1969 and owned it until his passing in March 2017. It was Jim Pollard who transformed the rink into an international beacon of artistic excellence; his legendary knowledge, generosity, and passion for artistic skating that led to its niche fame. For example, an artistic skater named, Ashley Clifford was trained there at her home rink at Redwood City rink and went on to travel the world for competitions and won 29 national championships! Maybe she was the AJ Foyt, Richard Petty, Tiger Woods, Brad Hulings, Tucker Hibbert, Mike Jordan, and Pete Rose, and "Dummy" Hoy as well as Hank Aaron of Roller Skating. (Those men I mentioned were, in respectively, Indy car, NASCAR, PGA, Sno-Pro snowmobile racing, Sno-Cross, NBA, and MLB in hitting, base stealing, and home runs). (Hey Baseball Veterans, why isn't Hoy in the Hall of Fame? Got something you do not like about him? Is it because he was Deaf? Hmm!? Baseball Fans, time to find a different sport to watch. There is roller skating!)
It was the very same Operator, Jim Pollard who was instrumental in setting rules and regulations for roller skating competitions with the FIRS (Federation Internacionale de Roller Sports-- in Italian). It is headquartered in Italy.
This rink was considered the best or one of the best artistic roller skating club in the nation, if not, the world.
The Interior.
The interior thanks to the photos I can see were taken in more recent years that it had maintained its classic look likely the entire time it was operational. Forest Green carpets and paint, Off-White paint on the walls. The floor appeared to be Concrete painted in White. The whole thing feels like you are in one of those forestry parks.
The ceiling panels were glossy White which gave reflexive lights on the ceiling. Those panels were common back in 1950s. They are making a comeback in 2010s and 2020s. This concept has a purpose to shine more in the rink because of the disco lights, and because of standard lights can shine brighter inside. You can see with an excellent photo showing where the snack bar is with the picnic tables are. In fact, with this kind of panel, it is energy effective because of it can shine brighter in the era of LED lights and energy saving.
Nothing interior-wise to match to the exterior Mid-Century Design. It gave that very basic small-rink feel. The colors were proper because of the size. White makes the room look bigger.
They had some newer wall art. The permanent advertisement was on the wall as the name of the rink looked like it was a vinyl graphic out of a cutter to make the letters and signs and pasted that on the back wall.
The side was quite narrow and looked like not enough room. Just a couple of games there and benches. Nothing exciting about the interior design though it was basic 1950s look. I really do love that green. It is actually my favorite green. Ahh, those days I sure miss (1980s was the decade it was very popular and I missed that decade because I lived through that, not 1950s. Oh well).
The Exterior.
A true classic 1950s Mid-Century Design with Segmental Arch roof and the frontage showed a true classic Mid-Century thin canopy over the front door and old Fire Engine Red signage on it. Not a Googie, Not a MCM but a Mid-Century Design that was popular and common of its day. The color of bricks/blocks were common at the time-- they were called Yellow Bricks. Not that Yellow Bricks you seen in Frank Baum's story about Dorothy and Toto traveled on that road. Not that Yellow. (MCM means Mid-Century Modernism). There are a difference with the styles. It was in its early form before the height of its design by 1956-ish. This design was carried over from 1940s and lasted till 1965 before the Browning of America Architecture Era began. I could say for the Googie's Architecture fans, this is pretty close to Googie's or MCM though to make their arguments. To be honest, I love the design! Truly 1950s, MC, almost Googie's, and almost MCM all in one. The interior was quite not like the exterior at all.
The design as I mentioned above has had reinforced roof because of the collapse just before they opened the rink in 1952.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: White paint Polyurethane coated Concrete Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built/Renovations: N/A. Demolished: N/A.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Trusses Cinderblocks with Yellow Bricks - Walled Warehouse - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: (Overall)-- 1952 to 10 pm, Saturday, 30 September 2017.
Reason for Closure: Jim Pollard's Death in March 2017,
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also photos/articles. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at [email protected]. Thank you. You can also use this form.
Sources:
Email- Ami "Tsunami" F.
The Five Sixty - lengthy article about the legendary rink. PDF version.
Date of issue: 04 October 2021.
For office use only: 10
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:3 and 16.