Police station demolished (Video)

Here is a longer video showing the Avocet Tower site at Wisconsin and Montgomery Avenues from different perspectives. The old 2nd District Montgomery County police station is just rubble now. After the site is cleared, excavation and construction will begin on the Avocet Tower office building.

Old Bethesda police station demolished (Video+Photos)

The vacant 2nd District Montgomery County police station at the corner of Wisconsin and Montgomery Avenues in Bethesda is no more. A pile of rubble is all that remains. After several other structures on the site are razed, excavation and construction of the Avocet Tower office building will begin.

Bethesda flags at half staff after Florida school shooting (Video+Photos)

Flags were at half staff for the opening day of the new 2nd District Montgomery County police station on Rugby Avenue, following this week's school shooting in Parkland, Florida. As they were at the Bethesda Metro Center plaza.

New Bethesda police station to officially open Thursday, February 15

The new 2nd District Montgomery County police station, located at 4823 Rugby Avenue in downtown Bethesda, will officially open to the public this Thursday, February 15, 2018, at 5:00 PM. From then onward, the station's public entrance will be open to the community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Routine walk-in services at the current police station, at 7359 Wisconsin Avenue, will be suspended around 7:00 AM Thursday. Those services will resume around 5:00 PM at the new police station. If you need such services Thursday evening, including fingerprinting, you are advised to first call the station after 5:00 PM, at 240-773-6700.

There is no free parking at the new police station. A public garage adjoins the station, but is now only open to traffic from the Woodmont Avenue entrance, at the traffic signal in front of the Bethesda Medical Building. The driveway next to the station is for police personnel only.

Digital signboard, parking arm added to new Bethesda police station

The final pieces continue to be added to the new 2nd District Montgomery County police station on Rugby Avenue in downtown Bethesda. These include an official Montgomery County government sign on the front facade, which appears to have a digital message board on it. A parking access arm has also been installed in the driveway leading to the parking garage in the rear. Anti-vehicle bollards  have been erected at the front entrance to the station. Accent lighting is in place along the side of the building, as well.

New police station sign lit

The "police" sign at the new 2nd District Montgomery County police station in Bethesda is now lit. It is located at 4823 Rugby Avenue.

Sign, flagpole installed at new Bethesda 2nd District police station (Photos)

The "police" sign is up on the facade of the new Montgomery County 2nd District police station on Rugby Avenue, and so is the flagpole. The design remains polarizing for many, evoking a prison-bunker aesthetic that is incongruous with the transforming mixed-use neighborhood rising around it.

Bethesda construction update: 2nd District police station (Photos)

The future Montgomery County 2nd District police station finally has a facade. Glass has been installed, as well as the front doors on Rugby Avenue at Del Ray Avenue. The east side of the building has the prison/fortress-style design, while the bulk of the front facade looks like an office building. You can see a lot of work still has to be done inside, and to connect the front doorway to the sidewalk grade.

Bethesda construction update: 2nd District police station (Photos)

The future 2nd District Montgomery County police station at 4823 Rugby Avenue is beginning to take on the bunker aesthetic seen in the rendering sketches. If the destruction of the office building on Bethesda Avenue was the most unique demolition we've seen in Bethesda history, the police station may represent the most unusual construction process. The walls were created slowly, cinder block by cinder block, something you don't see in the typical residential or office construction in Montgomery County.

Bethesda construction update: 2nd District police station (Photos)

Construction continues brick by brick at the future Montgomery County 2nd District police station on Rugby Avenue in downtown Bethesda. The station will replace the current one at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Montgomery Avenue, which developer StonebridgeCarras plans to redevelop as a hotel and office project.