The most secure and hardest government target in Bethesda - along with Walter Reed and the NIH - is the future Intelligence Campus on Sangamore Road. Formerly known to locals as "The Mapping Agency," the Geospatial Intelligence Agency at this site has moved to Fort Belvoir in Virginia.
For a variety of reasons - many classified - the federal government chose to maintain the site, and expand it as a massive, 30-acre "intelligence campus," for the Defense Intelligence Agency and others.
The DIA has been working with nearby residents on a variety of concerns: traffic, noise, stormwater runoff, height and visual appearance of buildings, and a controversial parking garage.
This site will remain a primarily automobile-oriented workplace. There is excellent Ride On bus access literally at the front door. But the bus schedule and hours are limited, and the time factor will keep many in their cars.
It is surprising, given the massive personnel boost this site will generate in the coming years, that neither the county nor the federal government are even talking about an obvious transit solution: the still-intact Georgetown-Glen Echo streetcar right-of-way. The former streetcar line passes by the campus in between MacArthur Boulevard and the Clara Barton Parkway.
With the District planning a streetcar line between Union Station and Georgetown University, thereby making a direct link to the Glen Echo ROW, well... duh!
Doesn't it make a lot of sense to be working on that?
The streetcar could also serve the large and rapidly-growing Sibley Hospital campus, which is building an entirely new hospital, and has completed a large physicians office building.
The basic concept of the new Intelligence Campus design will be to turn the current sea of asphalt, and (post 9/11) fortress appearance, into a well-manicured campus with a natural, green setting.
Based on these images, I think they've done a very good job. What an improvement over the existing design.
Currently, a crane is looming over the site, and the sidewalk on Sangamore is closed to pedestrians. One structure is rising, but the overall transformation of the space between the buildings and street will occur much later in the project.
What goes on at this site?
Top secret. Ostensibly, it was a mapping and satellite imaging site years ago. Having said that, the facility once had its own railroad spur off of the Baltimore & Ohio Georgetown Branch Railroad (now the Capital Crescent Trail). Those must have been some heavy maps, right?
My favorite image among these is the one that shows the Potomac River flowing by in the background. What a spectacular view. You'd have to use a helicopter to get a view like that.
This project has been recommended for approval by planning board staff, and action is expected at today's meeting.
I have to commend the DIA, NCPC, and many other agencies and local residents who have worked on this. On paper, at least, it looks like the federal agencies have gone the extra mile to make this work.
Ultimately, I think most people realize what an important site this is in protecting the country, and are willing to be fairly understanding about the various impacts the site will have.
The feds apparently provide a shuttle from the nearest Metro stop. Don't know how popular that is.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bethesdanow.com/2013/02/08/officials-show-off-new-bethesda-intelligence-base-designs/
It will need to be a full-size bus rather than a van, given the number of employees being transferred to this site. I wonder if they will go to Friendship Heights or Tenleytown Metro? Obviously, the streetcar would go to the Union Station Metro. The Ride On goes to FH.
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