The Maizon Bethesda apartments project is heading for the home stretch now at 7500 Arlington Road in downtown Bethesda. I'm still shocked every time I pass by as to how close the windows of the apartments on the lower levels are to the street. In an extreme collision, a vehicle could be propelled right into an apartment. I've never seen such a shallow setback for a residential building in Montgomery County. Developed by ZOM Living, Maizon is scheduled for delivery next year.
I think a lot of mixed use, multi-family buildings are built to the street with zero setback, but I agree, you don’t often see them with units on the ground level. Most seem to wisely place common spaces or retail shops at grade. I think some of these ground level units are even recessed a bit, sort of like a garden apartment, or a lower flat in a brownstone. These will have headlights passing at eye level.
ReplyDeleteI imagine most renters on these floors will have their window blinds closed 100% of the time, to create privacy from passing pedestrians and car headlights.
I looked at the approved plans again, and noted that most of the ground level is part of the parking garage on the north end, and only about 1/3 of the building actually has units facing Arlington Road on the south end. The plans show about 6 to 10 feet of landscaping between the sidewalk and the building face. Those units also have small recessed patios and steps down to enter their units directly form the exterior. It’s still quite tight, but hopefully they will create a decent landscape buffer in the narrow space.
ReplyDeleteI noticed the the lack of a sufficient setback as well. I can't believe this is allowed under Code. First floor apartments should have some kind of barrier wall to prevent a vehicle from winding up in a living room or bedroom. Ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteWaste of land right near metro.
ReplyDeleteThey could have built a mini city of towers on this land and all we get are these low structures.
They should have made the building one story taller and had ground-floor retail instead of ground-floor residential units. They could have had a nice strip of restaurants or stores here. Oh well. Too bad.
ReplyDelete11:11: Looks like something went wrong in the process, as often does in this county between plan and reality. There doesn't seem to be that much room for landscaping on the Arlington Road side. I'm hard pressed to immediately think of another residential building in Bethesda where a major road passes this close to apartment windows.
ReplyDeleteAt least 2/3 of the ground level is solid walls enclosing parking, not residential units. The southern 1/3 does indeed have units, all of which have entrances from the street side. These units have small patios, and steps down to access them from the sidewalk. Not ideal, I agree. I suspect this is where you will find the MPDU units.
ReplyDeleteI agree that found level retail would be nice, but likely hard to lease at this location.
The five to six story height of the building does create a decent stepped building massing, as the block is fairly cl0se to single family homes to the west, and is the same height as Upstairs at Bethesda Row and The Flats of Bethesda Avenue. Even the Brody is only seven stories tall, and 1/2 block to the east. I’m a big fan of high density housing, and tall buildings, but they should be closer to the Metro. In theory, if downtown Bethesda was fully built out as planned, the building massing would form a two poled pup tent shape, with the highest points at the north and south Metro entrances. Looking at the current skyline, this shape is now beginning to become established. East Bethesda along Wisconsin needs to fill in quite a bit to make this happen.
At no point did anyone (designer, builder, County Inspector) realize what this was turning into and how close it was being built to a major roadway? Did they simply say: "Oh well, the concrete for the foundation has already been poured. Guess we have to leave it as is."? People are going to have exhaust fumes come straight into their windows on the ground floor. It's unbelievable that this got built.
ReplyDelete6:52: The Arlington Road corridor was originally envisioned as a much denser, Metro-oriented housing area, with high amounts of affordable units. Those plans were mysteriously deep-sixed in favor of boutique buildings, and some urban core development steps away from Metro equally-mysteriously has instead been shifted to non-transit areas like Westbard.
ReplyDeleteThe residential units I'm referring to are facing Arlington Road. I've never seen a building facade this close to the curb of a major roadway in this area. Something clearly went wrong here.
What "went wrong?" The site plan specifically mentions waiving the usual ROW distance so that the ground floor units could fit in entrances. It's just a couple of feet that's affected, but will make a big difference as far as the usability of the lower level and the residential feel of the block. The idea that exhaust and accidents will endanger the units is rather far-fetched, but I'm all for giving Arlington a road diet if that makes people feel better.
ReplyDelete2:24: I think the road diet has been in the works for some time, but let's charge the developer for that public land instead of giving it away at our expense. We're being led by very corrupt people.
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