Friday, May 11, 2018

Impressive new images of 7272 Wisconsin project in Bethesda (Photos)

An impressive new set of renderings of Carr Properties' future 7272 Wisconsin development may inspire more optimism than the hole currently occupying the site. Click on any image to enlarge for greater detail. One view looking down from the office building across Elm Street gives the best and most-detailed view yet of the pedestrian plaza around the Purple Line station entrance. People can be seen through the transparent walls of the office building, whose tenants will include WTTG Fox 5. A pool of water and patches of green dot the plaza and sidewalk area.

A lobby space with a staircase features an abstract wall design that resembles tall library bookshelves. Icicle-like modern lighting fixtures dangle from the high ceiling.

The view along Elm Street gives a preview of what the garage entrances there, which will include a circular drop-off inside the building, will look like.

A new day in Bethesda dawns on a rooftop space, where one man reads the morning paper, while others sit inside a glassed-in structure with tables and chairs with dramatic lighting and a high ceiling.

Finally, a vision of how the new development will interface with the adjoining JBG Smith and Federal Realty properties is shown. The triangular green patch was just purchased at great expense by Montgomery County, but its future is far from certain. Everything from the low standards MoCo uses for parks, to the "secret" plan to extend the Purple Line to Westbard and Sumner, could end up sabotaging this promising public space at the corner of Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues. Hard to see in this particular rendering is the staircase that will make a pedestrian connection between Elm Street and this Woodmont plaza area, which architect Robert Sponseller predicted would remind one of "a nice Italian villa with that graceful staircase."

All renderings courtesy Shalom Baranes Associates, Architects
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21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Top-tier stuff. Not even grading on a suburban scale. The building/plaza/transit is legitimately world-class.

Anonymous said...

Indeed, world class architectural design! The towers look a bit like stacked "Jenga" boxes from the plaza, but maybe in real life will be less boxy. Thanks for posting!

Anonymous said...

How cool is that? Wisconsin Avenue is going to be just two lanes in each direction, and *still* there won't be any traffic to speak of. Sign me up!

Anonymous said...

A new day in Bethesda dawns on a rooftop space, where one man reads the old local legacy print media...

Anonymous said...

"The triangular green patch was just purchased at great expense by Montgomery County, but its future is far from certain. Everything from the low standards MoCo uses for parks, to the "secret" plan to extend the Purple Line to Westbard and Sumner, could end up sabotaging this promising public space at the corner of Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues."

And Robbie desperately searches for the cloud behind the silver lining.

Robert Dyer said...

9:07: The truth is actually bleaker than the scenario I laid out - the County specifically acquired that piece of land not for a park, but for the Purple Line extension.

Anonymous said...

Not sure why you feel the urban park will be consumed by use as a Purple Line Station. The new station is clearly being built under 7272 Wisconsin, along Elm Street., ending just west of Wisconsin. Of course it is a possibility that the line may extend to the southwest, within the CCT easement, perhaps to Westbard, and even further to Georgetown in the future. If this happened, the light rail tracks would simply traverse the west side of the new plaza, and cross Woodmont and Bethesda Avenue and enter the CCT adjacent to Ourisman. No new station at the intersection would be required, only tracks across a plaza.

Light rail tracks in theses areas often share the road with plazas, sidewalks and streets, and pedestrians and bikers just move aside, when a train slowly passes leaving a station, not unlike a bus. So any westward extension of the line would still leave the majority of the plaza available for use, and even the tracks would be paved to walk or ride a bike across. Of course the CCT west of Bethesda would be impacted, and Ourisman Honda may need to modify their new parking deck addition, but I assume the CCT would have a dedicated hiker/biker trail along side a dedicated portion for the trains, just like is currently being built east of Bethesda.

As an advocate of building high density uses near transit, I would assume you would be in favor of eventually adding a Purple Line Station at Westbard, and perhaps others beyond to Georgetown or even Tysons. Of course a complete circum-navigation of the Purple Line around DC has been discussed many times, adding more transit options than the current (largley) hub and spoke Metro system. Would this not defer some of your objection to the increased density of Westbard, as well as enhancing transit options in the region? Of course much study of the impact and ridership and cost would need to take place, but based on my understanding of your views, I would assume you would be in favor of this type of transit master planning and not call it out as some sort of secret agenda to destroy our city, or this new plaza.

Anonymous said...

With the extended Purple Line, Robbie will have one less excuse to look for a job in Virginia.

Anonymous said...

Purple line expected to greatly in cost increases and over runs.How many passengers are traveling west to east? A gross misuse of public funds by the govt.

Anonymous said...

Shalom Baranes knows what he is doing. Faia desigation is the highest architectural level.

Anonymous said...

"How many passengers are traveling west to east?"

Presumably all of those who commuted east to west in the opposite rush hour.

Robert Dyer said...

7:12: I didn't say the station would be on the plaza, I said the Purple Line extension to Westbard will run over the plaza to get around the JBG property.

The problem with the extension is that the Purple Line facility width cannot fit in the CCT right-of-way without major environmental destruction. They would literally have to blow up the hills in Sumner to fit two tracks, a trail and a median through there. And that was before Ourisman blocked the right-of-way right where they would be starting from.

I believe it was the outer Purple Line Doug Duncan advocated that was planned to circumnavigate the region, but with all of the revenue developers stand to make, anything is possible.

The only environmentally-sound way to extend the Purple Line would be as a subway, but the developers and Montgomery County officials are too cheap to spend the money necessary to do it. They would rather put all of that money to cheap BRT no one will use, but will allow the same amount of development over an even larger area. Give them credit for being devious, at least.

Anonymous said...

"The only environmentally-sound way to extend the Purple Line would be as a subway"

Says the guy who wants to build a 6-12 lane freeway through downtown Bethesda.

"They would rather put all of that money to cheap BRT no one will use"

The BRT is proposed along the busiest bus corridors in the County. Do you think bus passengers will suddenly stop using those routes once BRT is built along them?

Robert Dyer said...

8:12: More lies. The Northwest Freeway was never going "through" downtown Bethesda, but would have been in a trench behind businesses on the east side of Wisconsin Avenue. It was never going to be 12 lanes. The road could still be built today, and decked over to create parkland on top of it, as well as air rights development.

It wouldn't matter if every current rider used BRT (they won't, because the routes, stops and distances are less flexible with BRT), because the same number of cars would remain on the road if they did. Only now there would be 33% less capacity for those cars. Heckuva job, Brownie!

Anonymous said...

"The Northwest Freeway was never going "through" downtown Bethesda, but would have been in a trench behind businesses on the east side of Wisconsin Avenue."

Distinction without a difference. Idiotic statement.

"It was never going to be 12 lanes."

I-270 and the Beltway were only 6 lanes when they opened. The Beltway in Virginia, and Shirley Highway, were both only 4 lanes when they opened.

Anonymous said...

Any idea what the CCT right of way width is west of Bethesda? Is it narrower than east of Bethesda? Since this was once a rail corridor that extened to southwest, all the way to the Potomac, along the Canal Tow Path all the way to Georgetown, I assume the grade is fairly level. I would guess that a pair of light rail track, and a 12’ wide hiker/biker trail, and sufficient buffers between and at the edges could fit in a 100’ wide area.

I think the big reason such an extension might not be feasible is the relatively low density of the population southwest of Berhesda (other than the proposed Westbard area). Not much incentive or ridership, or even space for developers to build more density to justify the expense. Of course two river crossings would add tremendous cost if a circumnavigation was considered. Not much sense for only light rail and hiker/biker trails unless combined with other highway expansion. Heading west to Tysons would of course be incredibly destructive without the benefit of using the existing CCT right of way, and would likely need to use exiting street right of ways and shared traffic. One large benefit of the currently under construction a-lurked Line is that it is mostly in dedicated rights of way, and not much shared traffic or grade crossings with cars.

It would still be nice to connect Bethesda, Westbard and Georgetown with light rail, but not a likely idea to gain favor. Not likely most wealthy residents in the region would see any merit in such a plan either.

Anonymous said...

I don't think a light rail route to Georgetown would be the best use. Far better would be an extension to Tysons Corner, dramatically improving regional connectivity, and giving Bethesdians and Silver Springers a two-seat ride to Dulles Airport.

Robert Dyer said...

8:34: They're actually extending the Purple Line with the idea of increasing density at River Road, Westbard, Little Falls Mall and Sumner Highlands. All will get TOD heights and densities with the Purple Line extension.

A much, much better plan is to have the private firm that would build a new Potomac River crossing to Dulles lay the trackbed for a future Metro extension from Shady Grove to Dulles Airport in the center of the new highway and bridge.

8:08: The Beltway isn't even close to 12 lanes. The main reason I-270 had to be widened is that they never bothered to build all the other missing pieces of the freeway system in MoCo and D.C.

Anonymous said...

@3:12 Robert, show us a map where the Northwest Freeway would be behind the businesses east of Wisconsin.

Robert Dyer said...

8:49: The freeway is the slashed vertical line on the right side of this map:

http://bp2.blogger.com/_BZaPGsbLyHM/SDhlzonyh_I/AAAAAAAABwk/vZzxBOE-SvI/s1600-h/Bethesda_1965_1280.JPG

Anonymous said...

Dyer @ 9:58 PM - that route is most definitely "through downtown Bethesda".