Work has begun on a project to update the plaza and adjoining stairs at 2 Bethesda Metro Center (a.k.a. the Newlands Building) in downtown Bethesda. A large area of the staircase that leads up to the plaza from Montgomery Lane has been closed off, as well as part of the north sidewalk on Montgomery. The stairs will be widened, and the plaza fountain replaced with new seating. Building owner Chevy Chase Land Co.'s project is also relocating the main building entrance to the corner of Woodmont Avenue and Edgemoor Lane, as well as updating the annex behind the building.
2 comments:
It would be nice if the kiss and ride area got some updating. It looks run down and awful.
I believe that Brookfield is planning a major refurbishment of the bus bays and kiss and ride as part of their thirty story high, mixed-use, residential over retail caper called 4 Bethesda Metro. They asked for a three year extension on their site plan approval deadline about two years ago, so I imagine its about time to fish or cut bait.
This does seem like a terribly complicated and expensive way to add 600 residential units to downtown Bethesda. I think this project is key to the preservation of the Bethesda Metro Plaza as the ceremonial heart of downtown. Once the south entrance to the Metro, along with the Purple Line, and the Capital Crescent Trail and Civic Green open in a few years, Metro Center will really become a tired old CBD with not much more than low occupancy Class B office buildings, over a dark and pigeon poo covered bus terminal.
Unless they work at Marriott, most people taking the Metro to Bethesda, will likely exit to the south and pass through the Capital Crescent Civic Green into the heart of Bethesda Row, or to visit the Bethesda Market Food Hall and expanded Elm Street Park
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