Apex Building rubble (Photos)

Here's a look at the rubble remaining on the site of the demolished Apex Building at 7272 Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, as well as views of the site with the building now missing from the skyline from various perspectives. The building will be replaced by a mixed-use project from Carr Properties, over a new Purple Line light rail station.

Apex Building obliterated in Bethesda (Photos)

The Apex Building at 7272 Wisconsin Avenue is pretty much gone, its demolition restoring temporarily the view from the Wisconsin Avenue bridge over the former CSX railroad tracks (now the Capital Crescent Trail) as it was before the late 1980s. Carr Properties is building a mixed-use tower on the site, which has already signed Fox 5 as a tenant. A Purple Line station will also be built underneath the new development. The Apex Building was best known over the years for former tenants United Artists Bethesda 10, a.k.a. "UA"/Regal Cinemas Bethesda 10 and UNO Pizzeria & Grill.

Apex Building demolition shifts locations, allowing additional traffic lane to reopen in Bethesda

Workers demolishing the Apex Building at 7272 Wisconsin Avenue have moved to a different section of the structure. This allowed a second traffic lane to reopen on southbound Wisconsin Avenue in front of the building yesterday. The right southbound lane and sidewalk remain closed.

Apex Building demolition has SB Wisconsin Ave. down to one lane in Bethesda (Video+Photos)

Demolition of the Apex Building at 7272 Wisconsin Avenue has picked up speed, with about half of the structure having been knocked down at this point. Now that demolition is taking down the front portion of the building, traffic on southbound Wisconsin Avenue has been reduced to one lane.

This new view from Wisconsin Avenue
stopped me in my tracks for a moment - this
is what it used to look like up until the late 1980s

Bethesda demolition update: Apex Building (Photos)

Demolition of the Apex Building has been concentrated at the rear of the structure in recent weeks. But work on the Wisconsin Avenue side is now picking up. They've even plucked off the 2s in the building's 7272 Wisconsin address.

Regal Cinemas/Apex Building demolition (Video)

Here are some short video clips of the demolition team working on the UA, er, Regal Cinemas Bethesda 10 portion of the Apex Building. The theater closed on December 14, 2016. It opened almost 30 years ago as United Artists Bethesda 10. You can see the red curtains in some of the auditoriums, and the projection booths.

It's curtains for Regal Cinemas as Apex building comes down in Bethesda (Photos)

It's been almost a year since Regal Cinemas Bethesda 10 closed its doors forever in the Apex Building at 7272 Wisconsin Avenue, on December 15, 2016. Better known to longtime residents as "UA," for its original United Artists Bethesda 10 branding, the cineplex is now being torn apart by giant yellow machines working through the night.

What's fascinating at this stage of the demolition for those nostalgic for UA, is that the outer walls are gone at the rear of the building, and the interiors of some of the theater's auditoriums are now visible from the outside. While there's no sign yet of the theater seats, one can see the cutouts in the walls for the projector, the projection room above the rear of the auditorium, empty spaces where speakers were once attached, and - most poignantly - the regal red curtains in each of the exposed auditoriums.

While stadium, reclining, and reserved seating have revolutionized the theater industry, there's still a nostalgia for having side wings of seating, where only at the most popular movies would you have some idiot kicking your seat or spreading the flu he should have had the decency to stay home with.

The regal red curtains in what
I believe was the 2nd largest
auditorium at the rear of the
Regal Bethesda 10 cineplex

Loyal, longtime customers won't soon forget the tuxedoed master of ceremonies who ran a tight ship at UA in the 1990s, or the venerable snack bar manager who never missed a chance to upsell you - or appeal to your charitable senses with a worthy cause before the lights went down..

Yes, the "closets" on the right side of the main corridor were cramped, and occasionally took on the odor of a nearby restroom. Yes, projector operators would sometimes turn the volume knob to 11 at the start of the movie in one of those tiny auditoriums, and proceed to fall asleep. Yes, I can tell you which technical malfunction marred the picture on the big screen at particular movies. Yes, the ushers vanished altogether by the turn of the century. And the old fire-alarm-goes-off-at-the-most-gripping-moment-in-the-film trick - 'nuff said.

The box about halfway up the
right side of this photo is the
projection room

But Bethesda misses its cineplex. Except for the occasional mainstream film at Landmark Bethesda Row, one has to get the car to see a blockbuster. Metro? Good Lord. Restaurant and shop closures have picked up steam, now that thousands are missing from the downtown streets on Friday and Saturday nights. Bethesda needs a new movie theater. But no matter how posh the seats, upscale the snack bar options, and expensive the ticket prices, it won't be "UA." Auditorium 10, please.