The latest mystery repairs to confound the curious in downtown Bethesda are at
The Chase on Woodmont Avenue.
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| Covers shield exterior ventilation from dust and debris at The Chase |
It seems like every brick in the building's facade is being painstakingly replaced. I'm not an engineer, much less a mason, so I have no idea why this is being done. I can't recall this happening at another building in Bethesda in my lifetime.
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| Where's Fix-it Felix when you need him? |
Two notable points about this: First, the last unit was finally sold in this building not long before this work began. Ironically, one of the selling points to buyers was that the building had just been renovated. So if you bought there, you probably thought you'd enjoy living without major maintenance projects for a while. Guess again!
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| These masons don't just do windows... |
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| ...the brick replacement is quite extensive. |
Second, I recall some discussion online about masonry tuckpointing at The Chase. Again, I'm no expert on that, but that is an intermediary step taken short of a full brick replacement. I cannot find that particular message board posting today - and of course, you can't trust anonymous postings online anyway. The masonry reference didn't make much sense at the time. But I wish I'd paid more attention to that discussion, given this new context.
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