PROJECT 4747 Bethesda Avenue
LOCATION Bethesda, Maryland US
PROJECT COMPLETION DATE 9/30/2019
ARCHITECT Shalom Baranes Associates
ASSOCIATED ARCHITECT/DESIGNER ARCHITECTURE TEAM: Design Architect: Shalom Baranes Associates (base building; rooftop and select amenity planning, spaces, and selections); Interior Design Consultant: ZGF Architects (ground level lobby; fitness center; elevators); Interior Design Consultant: Partners By Design (atrium); Architects of Record: MGMA
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN TEAM Design Principal: Robert Sponseller, FAIA; Senior Designer: Laura Croce, LEED AP; Tim Daniel, AIA, LEED AP; David Kaplan, AIA; Tim Harkin, RA; Elppa Zhou
OWNER/CLIENT JBG Smith
CONTRACTOR/CONSTRUCTION MANAGER Lendlease
PHOTOGRAPHER RON BLUNT Architectural Photography
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT LandDesign
CIVIL ENGINEER Johnson Bernat Associates
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER Tadjer-Cohen-Edelson Associates
MECHANICAL ENGINEER KTA Group
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER KTA Group
CONSULTANT PAGE – LEED consultant
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SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT
4747 Bethesda Avenue stimulates the public realm and creates an iconic image for the headquarters of a national development firm. Located along a zoning fault line in a district undergoing dramatic change, this project mediates its dramatic context while demonstrating how design can establish a sense of place.
The design responds to three challenges:
(1) to mass in response to neighborhood scale and height transitions
(2) adaptively reuse a vacant existing market building
(3) employ materials on a commercial building that resonate in a neighborhood of varied materials and brick sidewalks.
(1) Massing
Three interlocking volumes step down and scale the building toward a plaza. The tallest volume addresses the commercial corridor, providing visibility for the headquarters of a national development firm. The second volume floats above the sidewalk to reveal and engage the existing market building and address the street. A third volume is scaled to a neighborhood plaza that serves as gathering place and transit access.
Embracing the stepped composition led to accessible outdoor spaces that are directly related to interior workspaces. The existing market building’s roof is reinforced to support plantings and hardscape connected to the new building’s atrium. Two upper level terraces along the main neighborhood street overlook the plaza. Accessible to all tenants, these areas are also visible from surrounding buildings and the central plaza. The penthouse volume, which houses office, amenity, and mechanical functions, is of the most unique and special parts of the building. It is cladded in the primary façade type and incorporates garage style doors that create an indoor-outdoor amenity space for tenants.
(2) Market
The existing market building (designed by others) was originally planned to house two levels of grocery retail. A change in use allowed the design team to annex its second floor and connect it to the office volume, a catalyst for a multi-level internal space that connects the lower six levels of the building and serves as the location of the owner’s headquarters. This space links the main lobby, lower level amenity spaces and the exterior terrace garden above the market building to the interior work space, providing both views and access to landscaped gardens and outdoor work spaces.
(3) Materials
Both client and architect sought to go beyond the glass box and deliver a cutting-edge façade that would fit in the neighborhood. An innovative convex recycled-steel cladding, colorized in bronze, adds depth and sophistication to the glass curtainwall. It is an energetic companion to the neo-industrial market building and sparks visual interest as color and light shifts across the surface throughout the day.
JURY COMMENTS (If Applicable)
Modern architecture is sometimes conceived from a distance. Shape and organization and missing detail. When one approaches a modern building like this, the experience is sometimes thinned, the tell tail details are then too often caulk joints. Not so with 4747 Bethesda Avenue. This project is an essay on how to make a modern building that gets richer and richer as you get closer. The building is skillfully shaped and alive in its appeal to its neighbor buildings, the sun, clouds and sky. Conceiving of a shape and skin with detail that is alive and illusive ensures presence in our experience.
The sensitive nature of the placement of the new tower with respect to the existing structure is well done in both the exterior scale and interior spatial connections.
This was a wonderful project. The exquisite detailing of the façade adds depth and texture with a precision that’s not commonly seen on buildings of this scale. The skillful incorporation of the existing building was well crafted, consistent in language yet clearly distinguishable from the addition.
Clever and innovative manipulation of the half column transforming it through subtractive form and dynamic material finish to construct an active and engaging building element.
A simple detail helps create a surface articulation which modifies what could have been a typical glass office building, into a building that changes and tracks the different lighting conditions throughout the day. Simple massing helps scale the building to its context, while a maintaining a human scale at the street level. Overall, a well-done field building which contributes to the urban fabric.
MEDIA FOR DOWNLOAD
Project/Jury PDF
IMAGES (Captions and Photographer Credit)
1. 4747 Bethesda mediates its dramatic context while demonstrating how design can establish a sense of place © RON BLUNT ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY
2. 4747 Bethesda mediates its dramatic context while demonstrating how design can establish a sense of place © RON BLUNT
3. Innovative, convex recycled steel cladding © RON BLUNT
4. The high-performance skin respects and builds on the design language of a mixed-character neighborhood © RON BLUNT
5. Three interlocking volumes maximize outdoor space for tenants and create a striking sculptural design from the public plaza © RON BLUNT
6. The stainless steel panels are a decorative rainscreen that does not penetrate the water-tight layer of the enclosure © RON BLUNT
7. Color and light shifts across the surface throughout the day © RON BLUNT
8. The penthouse terrace maintains the prime façade enclosure design © RON BLUNT
4747 Bethesda Avenue
Category
Local > AIA Potomac Valley > Commercial Architecture (AIA Potomac Valley)
Winner Status
- Gold Award / Non-Residential
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