The LED public art feature on the facade of the Brightview Bethesda senior living apartments at 4907 Rugby Avenue in downtown Bethesda is now fully installed and activated. It features a screen at the bottom of the column that is currently advertising sign contractor Gable, which is based in Curtis Bay, Maryland and has provided signage for many high-profile commercial properties across the state.
The incorporation of the small video screen in the base of the lighted artwork really cheapens the idea to me. Too small to be a meaningful contribution to the art idea, and likely just a place to advertise for Brightview programs. I would have placed such a video screen elsewhere in the storefront and let the artwork stand alone. Sort of like adding a scrolling ticker tape advertising at the base of a classic painting. I bet the artist was not consulted in this addition.
ReplyDeleteAmazing how Dyer can announce a coming soon sign at the high end retailer Marine Layer, and in the same paragraph decry the idea as moribund. Churn is a natural occurring process in the retail business. Stores close, stores open, get over it. The landlord announced this new luxury retail only weeks after Kate Spade closed. Perhaps he hasn’t priced a new T shirt at Marine Layer. It’s every bit a luxury brand.
ReplyDelete8:12: LOL - take a drive down Wisconsin to "Montgomery County's Rodeo Drive," which is now a strip of vacant storefronts, aging apartments and smashed-out bus shelters. Now the impact of the flight of the rich to lower-tax jurisdictions is reaching Bethesda Row. When you no longer have the wealth base to support Kate Spade, you're in trouble, old sport. Check out the declining revenue and ongoing budget shortfall in Montgomery County again this year, and think about it.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the lighted artwork...how else do you expect the old folks to find their way home? Sheesah!
ReplyDelete"Take a drive down Wisconsin to "Montgomery County's Rodeo Drive," which is now a strip of vacant storefronts, aging apartments and smashed-out bus shelters."
ReplyDelete1) There are exactly two residential buildings along Wisconsin Avenue in Friendship Heights - Highland House and Somerset House. The residents of both complexes are laughing at you right now. Units in Somerset House sell for $1-5 million.
2) You saw exactly one panel on one bus shelter in Friendship Heights on one occasion in the 13 years of "Suburban News Network's" existence. Which was promptly replaced.
Kate Spade's eponymous founder died "suddenly" last year. Many stores across the country and the world have closed since then.
ReplyDelete"smashed-out bus shelters"
ReplyDeleteNot true.
One could argue that Marine Layer is a much better up-scale brand for the ever changing market in Bethesda, compared to a very traditional high-end retailer like Kate Spade. Your notion that Bethesda is waning is simple absurd. Two new high rise hotels, four new high rise office buildings, two of which will house headquarters (Marriott and JBG Smith), and 18 or so new mid and high-rise apartment buildings surly prove otherwise. 9000 new jobs in the four new office tower and hotels, 7500 new multifamily housing units. Dozens of new retail and restaurants will fill the ground floors of most of these new towers. The stream of new retailers and restaurants opening up will heavily outweigh the few that might close.
ReplyDeleteThere is absolutely nothing moribund about the Bethesda CBD. Oh yeah, maybe a few nightclubs and Barnes & Noble have left town, replaced with high-end retail and a more contemporary idea of a bookstore. The demographics of downtown residents have indeed shifted from a younger crowd to a more affluent and older crowd.
Of course Chevy Chase is experiencing a huge shift away from hyper-luxurious retailers, especially with the new retail at the CityCenter DC. Almost all hyper-luxury retailers are pulling way back across the country and in Europe.
4:44: Economic development in Bethesda - and countywide - is indeed moribund, as federal government BLS statistics clearly show. 16 nightspots have "left town," far more than "a few." The "contemporary" new bookstore draws only a fraction of the foot traffic of Barnes & Noble after the initial novelty wore off. There's hardly anyone in there, as is the case at Anthropologie & Co., with the exception of the Terrain Cafe.
ReplyDeleteMarriott and JBG Smith were already located here - they're simply moving sliding their chairs across the Titanic's deck.
Those new housing units are largely being filled by airbnb/hotel guests, corporate contract housing for jobs located outside of Montgomery County, and dorm students. The cost of these residents, who have lower income than the average, far exceeds the revenue gained from these developments by the County. That's a major reason for our structural deficit.
Bethesda is waning, as is the County - no major corporate HQ has relocated here in over 20 years.
9:59: That's absolutely not true.
ReplyDeleteNo other Kate Spade stores are closing nationwide at the time ours did.
Kate Spade SOLD THE COMPANY YEARS AGO and had no involvement in it at the time of her untimely death.
9:48: Somerset House is set back on a side street; it does not front onto Wisconsin Avenue. Highland House is the only building that fronts Wisconsin, and is indeed aging. I've been inside often enough to know, unlike you, carpetbagger.
ReplyDelete1:43: Sorry, chump - I posted photographic proof of the smashed out bus shelter.
"Somerset House is set back on a side street; it does not front onto Wisconsin Avenue"
ReplyDeleteThe addresses of Somerset House I, II and III are 5600, 5610, and 5630 Wisconsin Avenue. Somerset House I definitely on Wisconsin Avenue.
"Highland House is the only building that fronts Wisconsin"
Your previous comment said "aging apartment*s*". Plural.
"and is indeed aging"
Built in 1972 (the same year as your house), and well-maintained. Where did you get this notion?
"Sorry, chump - I posted photographic proof of the smashed out bus shelter."
One bus shelter, one panel, on one occasion in 2018, and promptly repaired. Your comment implies that one can see multiple "smashed-out bus shelters" along that strip right now.
Your complete unfamiliarity with Friendship Heights as it actually exists "makes you sound like a carpetbagger".
10:21: Your carpetbaggerness is showing again. Somerset House does not front onto Wisconsin Avenue. Not even close. Drive by and take a look.
ReplyDeleteYou have no idea when that bus shelter was repaired, if it ever was. Pure speculation from a carpetbagger in a dark room, in a moribund county.
"Built in 1972." LOL - I've never lived in a house built in 1972, Mr. Stalker.
Apartments are plural - there are more than one in a building, old sport.
You just need to stop being so pessimistic. Everyone who reads this blog seems to agree that you should try to be more positive and stop with the moribund crap. Be a voice for a positive change. Why not report on the Ride to Work Day Events, proposed enhanced protected bike lanes, or other upcoming events?
ReplyDeleteWe are all frankly getting very tired of the Sky is Falling, we are all doomed (except for Tyson’s) crap. Do you really think you can make a difference with all of this negativity? Do you really think anyone will believe you would be a good choice for an elected position, when all you do is bitch?
7:22: "Everyone who reads this blog seems to agree that" you should stop trolling. The sky is in fact falling for Montgomery County, and thank God at least one journalist is telling the truth about it. Everywhere else in the MoCo cartel-controlled media you can find relentless false positivity about our elected officials and how we're getting better every minute. Total hoax.
ReplyDeleteWe can't clean up this mess until we fix the problems. It's time to lose the Lake Wobegon disease MoCo's elite suffer from, and admit we are in serious trouble folks.
Our country is in serious trouble. Our county less so.
ReplyDelete7:43: You've got it exactly backwards - the national economy is booming by every measure, yet we are excluding from that growth by our moribund County economy. This is reminiscent of the Obama stimulus effort, when we used all of our money on repaving roads because the Council had no shovel-ready highway projects cued up. Sad!
ReplyDeleteNot only is our County economy deader than a doornail, but the County's debt - if it were a department - would be the THIRD-LARGEST DEPARTMENT in the County government.
Then you look at the insane budget the Council is about to pass - higher property taxes, misplaced priorities, and the irresponsible decision to overfund the school system with one-time payments that will have to be made up every year now thanks to the maintenance-of-effort. More money right down the MCPS toilet. This budget suggests the Council is not only crooked, but perhaps mentally ill, as well.
The schools are over crowded and must be fixed, or the schools are overfunded and this should be stopped. I’m so confused...
ReplyDelete8:15: You've just confused capital budget with the operating budget - the overfunding is not for construction. MCPS performance has declined steadily this decade, despite funding increasing over that time. Money is not the problem. The curriculum is.
ReplyDelete"Money is not the problem. The curriculum is."
ReplyDeleteWhat changes would you make to the curriculum of MCPS?
Also the post says it/they are still "smashed out", 16 months later.
ReplyDeleteFollowed by "You have no idea when that bus shelter was repaired, if it ever was. Pure speculation from a carpetbagger in a dark room, in a moribund county."
Again, how can you keep saying the rich are fleeing and lowering the base when their houses sit for maybe 30 days on the market before being sold to new people with money?
ReplyDeleteThe wealth base is still here, they just don't go out shopping like they once did. Not here, not on 5th Avenue, not on Rodeo Drive. Rodeo Dr has become more of a tourist spot...selfies on Rodeo Dr...not shopping.
9:16 AM 5/18/19
"Rugby Avenue public art installation completed (Photos)"