Thursday, May 14, 2026

Artena Bethesda developer hires artist to paint windows of vacant storefronts


The developer of the stalled-out Artena Bethesda apartment tower project recently had a row of the vacant storefronts on the Wisconsin Avenue side of the site painted blue. Now an artist has been hired to paint artworks on the store windows. The vertical panels display a variety of colorful scenes, most with a nature theme. I'm not sure if the new paint and artworks will necessarily make pedestrians feel safer walking along that stretch after dark, but it is certainly an improvement over the status quo of the last decade.




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That looks more like film applied to the plywood, and not painted images. Rather poor choice of artwork as it sort of looks like ChatGBT generated images. I suppose it is better that raw plywood, and broken windows.

JAC said...

Here's an idea. Knock them all down and start the redevelopment. The block, including the former Tia Queta, on the corner, is a complete wasteland of empty buildings and a overgrown jungle of an empty lot at the end where Steamers was. It looks awful.

Anonymous said...

"The block" you're referring to is in a completely different place in Bethesda.
At least get your facts straight.

JAC said...

12:21 - Remember, it takes exactly the same amount of time to say something nice as it does to say something nasty. Try it.

Anonymous said...

I know you can be better than this! (There you go.)