The Bethesda Historical Society will mark one of the greatest moments in Bethesda history this Sunday, August 25, 2024 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM on the Bethesda Metro Center plaza. It will have been exactly 40 years ago Sunday that the Metro subway system officially arrived in downtown Bethesda with the opening of the Bethesda Metro station. A time of tremendous excitement, the redevelopment of the site that became the Metro Center also brought an upheaval and departure of beloved businesses and old architecture.
The Metro Center redevelopment did deliver modern office buildings and a hotel that are still impressive today. There was even a Burger King for a time! And the Metro Center plaza became a central gathering space for downtown Bethesda, with its ice rink, Christmas tree, and July 4th firework displays. All of those seasonal features are gone now, as the center of activity drifted over to the newer Bethesda Row development this century. The plaza fountains still provide an oasis of respite in the Central Business District.
It's hard to imagine today how exciting it was to ride the Metro subway for the first time in the 1980s. The system's stations were the design envy of the world. Some of that original aesthetic and vision has been lost with recent attempts to brighten surfaces and wreck the dramatic lighting. Suffice it to say, there is little appreciation of Brutalism (or great architecture, for that matter) among those who now dominate regional decisionmaking.
Sunday's event will feature historical exhibits, music, and family activities. There will be special remarks delivered at 12:15 PM. The event is co-sponsored by the Marriott Bethesda Downtown hotel, the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center, the Greater Bethesda Chamber of Commerce, transit agency WMATA, and the KID Museum.
12 comments:
The area of the bus hub is disgusting. It's dirty, pigeons all over the place, trash everywhere, homeless people sleeping on the bus stop seats, etc., DISGUSTING.
Bethesda metro is the worst! I hate walking there alone at night. I take the metro late at night and it's scary walking through there. :(
Thanks for the heads up on this celebration! Any idea why the large fountain was not operating this summer?
Did I miss an update for 4 Bethesda Metro Center? If not, the sketch plan is going to expire in the next couple months, I believe. That project - or some other redevelopment - might go a long way towards injecting some life into what's currently just an awkward dead zone in the middle of downtown.
If Harry Weese or Stan Allan could see their subway today theyd turn over in their graves. Its like the post office running the space program. Incompetent, mismanaged, dangerous, and unduly expensive.
I was there and still have the folded up advertising announcement flyers. Pathetic how something can go into decline run by Amalgamated jobs program local. #WalkLeftStandRight
Bring back the ice skating rink.
Yes, nothing adds life and vibrancy to "an awkward dead zone in the middle of downtown" quite like blotting out more of the sun with the addition of 479 apartment units in a 290-foot apartment block. It's monolithic-rific.
Do you just have a singularly unorthodox view of what constitutes civic vitality, or is there perhaps a chance you might possibly be somehow affiliated with builders, contractors, CRE, or property development, @9:01?
5:06: Last week at Union Station, I noticed they have new policy in the waiting areas. There are signs that the seating is for ticketed customers and a two hour limit to sit there and that cops will come check. A lot fewer homeless now.
Found the guy who's real fun at parties
are they ever go to fix the elevator that goes from the metro to the plaza. It has been out for about 4 years.
You know what's a real shame? I actually wanted to attend that soiree, but talked myself out of it and didn't go for the sole reason of thinking that jawando would probably make an appearance and ruin a perfectly well intentioned event by running his mouth at the microphone, and low & behold after just watching NBC 4's coverage piece I was correct! -- If I had indeed gone to said event, I most likely would have made the news by lunging at him a-la style similar to that guy who attacked the judge's high bench as seen in the now famous viral court room video, MoCo PoPo or "detail" be damned!!
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