The Dark Side of White Flint, Part 50
Welcome to The Dark Side of White Flint, an ongoing series about the not-so-wonnerful, wonnerful, wonnerful side of urbanizing the suburbs of Montgomery County.
A demolition a decade in-the-making is at last proceeding at 11565 Old Georgetown Road. Grand Scandanavian architecture is crumbling to the ground at the business end of heavy machinery. Saab hasn't made cars in over a decade, focusing instead on its core business as a defense and aerospace firm. But its White Flint dealership remained a testament to these ultra-safe and ultra-quirky Swedish automobiles that put more thought into design than IKEA.
Saab memorabilia that was still inside the abandoned dealership in 2013 was presumably removed when redevelopment of the property stalled out, and the property became a T-Mobile store in 2017. The indignity!
The Saab dealership is gone. Darkness falls over Old Georgetown Road. But somewhere in the night, a car still starts with an ignition on the floor between the seats, and shuts off with the transmission in reverse.
“Do you see that tree? It is dead but it still sways in the wind with the others. I think it would be like that with me. That if I died, I would still be part of life in one way or another.” - Anton Chekov
8 comments:
But more importantly, what's going in its place?
I'm happy to see this dystopian suburban landscape replaced with a grid of complete streets and much nicer buildings, serving the walkshed from the Metro station.
@6:41 a 17-story senior-housing high-rise. There's a wave of high-end senior high-rises beginning construction in MoCo over the next year, including the first phase of the of Marrriot hq redevelopment (already uc), this site, and a 30-story stower at Strathmore square that should break ground by the end of the year.
SAAB was a popular brand in the Bethesda area, back in the day. Definitely different - before GM bought them.
Presumably this phase 1 is ready to go, then.
https://montgomeryplanningboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Grand-Park-Staff-Report-FINAL.pdf
Any word on how much longer the nearby Popeye’s and McDonald’s will be around?
9:29 - Thank you!
1:45 - I had info on that but you bring up a good topic there. No doubt those sites and many others like it will be meeting tht bulldozer sooner than later. If every corner in downtown Bethesda is a mixed-use project, you can't bet larger projects will go in on the Popeye, Arby's, McD's and many others.
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