The St. Elmo Apartments are now about six stories above their namesake street in downtown Bethesda. As it takes form in the air, its close proximity to next door neighbor Bainbridge Bethesda becomes more clear. A jar of Grey Poupon may not be able to be passed from a resident in one building to one in the other, but it looks like it could from some angles. The 22-story tower will house 276 luxury apartments, 6000-square-feet of retail and restaurant space, and a 222-space underground parking garage. Master developer Duball, LLC had anticipated a Q1 2024 delivery, but delays at the very beginning of the project make that target unlikely to be achieved, at the risk of stating the obvious.
3 comments:
The two buildings are 45’ apart. Many streets in NYC are 50 feet wide, so these buildings will not be very much closer than what is very common in NYC. Of course those streets include cars, and are often much taller than 17 and 22 stories high. Early morning and late afternoon sun should provide lots of natural light to this pedestrian plaza. The plaza should be nice and cool in the summer at mid-day, with the new tower providing shade. If you look at the Bainbridge now, most of those south facing windows have their blinds down all day, to protect the apartments from the sun. Maybe less privacy, but certainly better solar shading.
That sounds nice, but aren't you forgetting that buildings aren't built flush with the curbside? So wouldn't New York City buildings separated by a 50-foot street be significantly more than 50 feet away from each other?
(Activate the space!) (Someone had to say it.)
No, the right of way in many NYC and other urban streets is 50’, so the building faces are 50’ apart. Public sidewalks are in the public right of way. These narrow urban streets often have three lanes of traffic, or 36’ of pavement, and 7 foot wide sidewalks on both sides. These older streets often have older buildings with fire escapes that cantilever over the sidewalk, reducing the building to building distance even more.
I’m not suggesting that 45’ is ideal, but it is not uncommon in most America cities. Lots of blocks also have 20’ wide alleys, with buildings on both sides. Now that is way too close in my opinion.
I believe the plan is to activate this mid-block pedestrian plaza with outdoor dining adjacent to the retail spaces, cable mounted lighting, shade trees and a very large metal structure composed of a human figure created from hundreds of metal letters welded together, created by a rather famous sculpture. Hopefully this space will be as activated as Bethesda Lane.
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