The 4909 Auburn apartment building is now a hulking presence above Auburn Avenue in downtown Bethesda's Woodmont Triangle neighborhood. The Greystar development appears to still be on-track for a mid-2024 delivery, via construction contractor Donohoe of Bethesda. You can get a good look at the pedestrian cut-through that lets you walk under the apartments from Imagination Stage to Battery Lane Urban Park, with the single-family homes of Rugby Avenue visible from Auburn. There are three ground-level retail spaces available for lease, if you are a businessperson who wants to get in on the literal ground floor at 4909 Auburn. Two of the retail spaces are vented.
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Although it’s nice to see the added density at this site, I think a few poor choices were made in the design. The big idea of this concept was to break down the scale of the massing on the northwest side, adjacent to the single family homes. The stepped massing helps do this somewhat, with lots of large roof terraces, but another idea was to emphasis the steps with two or three colors of brick. Unfortunately, all three colors of brick are so close, the masonry facade does not look intentional, but more of a mistake.
ReplyDeleteThe grayish color of the bricks doesn’t help either. This is very similar to the grayish brick used on the two new mid-rise towers at Strathmore Square. Not a very handsome or warm color brick, and even looks a bit like unpainted grey concrete block.
The wood textured metal panels in the recesses help warm up the project a bit, especially on the more brutal southeast facade which lacks any stepped massing.
In summary, a nice infill project that has several missed opportunities to be a great building.Hopefully some nice retailers will envigorate the ground level spaces, and allow us to forget about the bland grey brick above.
Sympathy to the homeowners with their morning sun blocked by this brutal looking building.
ReplyDeleteLooks like an urban prison block.
Learning
The stepped massing is also planned for the proposed high-rise on the east side of Wisconsin (East Bethesda neighborhood) where parking lots 25 and 44 currently are located. Residents aren't too crazy about the further encroachment of the neighborhood (some of the community concerns are included in section 5 of the report below).
ReplyDeleteHere's the plan for lot 25 (accepted March 2024) https://montgomeryplanningboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/320240070-Sketch-Plan-SR.pdf