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| Have you bought your Star Wars: Episode VII tickets yet? |
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| Does the curved screen suspended above this corridor look familiar? |
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| Not your typical snack bar |
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| Premium ticket holders get iPic pillows and blankets. In case you're wondering, they are replaced with fresh ones at each screening |
You may have noticed the paper window coverings at the building pictured below, on the plaza level of the Bethesda Metro Center.
It is currently being renovated by and for Streetsense, a rapidly-growing Bethesda firm that does everything from real estate to branding to design/architecture and development consulting. Its current HQ is at 4600 East-West Highway, but it will move to this new building when renovation is completed.
Not again. The "new" designs for future mini-Manhattan Pike and Rose resemble the lackluster ones previously revealed. Clusters of non-descript office towers and mixed-use town centers sit, bump-on-log style, astride a once-bustling shopping center, a half-hearted paean to "The Man."
We're giving up Toys R Us for this?
In that case, I don't want to grow up, Geoffrey!
The plan aesthetically refutes all of the buzz phrases so-called "Smart Growth" development advocates enjoy deploying in planning work sessions nationwide.
To use one of their phrases, there's no "there" there.
Examine the close-up of what seems to be the Bethesda Lane or Rockville Town Square of Pike and Rose. Context aside, where are you in this scene? Can you identify a single architectural feature that says Pike and Rose, White Flint, Montgomery County, anything? (Please leave it in the comments if you can!).
The comparison to Bethesda Row is indeed a stretch. Bethesda Lane is probably one of the few town centers anywhere that actually has an identity of sorts. But at Pike and Rose, one could be in New Jersey or Portland or at any of the other bland, nondescript town centers in the DC area.
And why does it look like the grand curve of Old Georgetown Road has been whipped into an old-fashioned, 4-way urban intersection? Not only is the new work disappointing, but they're going to iron out one of the few road stretches with character in the area to boot? L'Enfant may rise from the dead if he hears of this.
Speaking of roads... That trench labeled "Montrose Parkway" at the top? That's supposed to be a six-lane Rockville Freeway. And without the Rockville Freeway (and additional MARC and Red Line capacity), this whole White Flint plan simply cannot handle the influx of cars it will bring.
It's no secret I opposed the White Flint plan as passed by the Montgomery County Council. But if you're going to "transform" an area, at least do it responsibly, and utilizing designs that improve the aesthetics and quality of life for residents.
Despite my opposition to the WF plan, I would probably approve the 2 towers (one already built) and the "ziggurat" development proposed by JBG nearby. While not Dubai-esque, at least they have something to offer artistically and help define a location.
Maybe it's early, and the buildings shown are placeholders for exciting designs to come at Pike and Rose. But at the moment, what's being touted is only reinforcing what I had predicted long ago.
In the richest county in the richest country in the world, why are we content to take an architectural back seat to Dubai, Hong Kong, and Shanghai?
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| Here's how Vino Volo at Bethesda Row looks now |
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| But this is what it will look like when finished, thanks to impressive designs by Collective Architecture, LLC |
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| Collective Architecture, LLC |
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| Collective Architecture, LLC |
