Project Summary

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.