LCOR plans to break ground before the end of the year on its third building - a 19-story, 341-unit apartment - within its recently enhanced North Bethesda Center. Construction of the residential building, the "Aurora", will commence before the end of the year, confirms LCOR's vice president Mike Smith.
NoBe II is located north of JBG's North Bethesda Market; there could be a III and IV as JBG owns more land to the south and west of the two sites, but for now, NoBe II is its sole focus in the area. NoBe II will be completed in one phase, taking 2-to-3 years, said Trimmer.
Meanwhile, LCOR's focus for the moment, the Aurora (rendering below), was designed by WDG, and will be built by BE&K; the building's site plan hearing will be held on the 22nd.
Both LCOR and JBG tacked on significant density to their North Bethesda projects in the past year, after the White Flint Sector Master Plan was passed by the Montgomery County Council in March of 2010.
Due to the increased zoning envelope permitted by the new White Flint Sector Plan, LCOR upped the square footage of planned construction on its 32-acre site by 40 percent: from 2.7 to 4.5 million square feet. JBG did the same, also increasing its F.A.R by 40 percent: from 2.4 to 4.0.
Revisions to LCOR's development have been a joint effort, having partnered with FX Fowle earlier this year. FX Fowle was brought on to assist with creating a new, enhanced vision for North Bethesda Center and give it a "fresh look," said Smith.
The enhanced North Bethesda Center plan by LCOR and FX Fowle is for approximately 1.4 m s.f. of office, 310,000 s.f. of retail, 2.4 m s.f of residential, a 350,000 s.f. hotel, and a 15,000 s.f. library. Initial plans by LCOR were to construct eight buildings on site, however Smith said that now the development team aims for "up to 10 high-rise buildings for the property." A Site Plan for 7.4 acres (3 parcels) of the development was submitted on July 29th and is now under review.
Both Trimmer and Smith applauded the foresight of Montgomery County in passing the new Sector Plan last year. Trimmer also gave his company, JBG, a nod, when questioned whether creativity was more apt to flourish on projects located outside of the District; Trimmer said, "I have to credit JBG. We've made a distinct strategic decision to increase the distinctiveness of our architecture and differentiate our projects."
What Trimmer refers to at the moment, North Bethesda Market II (pictured above), was designed by Studios Architecture and is comprised of a "striking" 339-unit residential tower (300-feet tall, surpassing its own accomplishment to the south), a 6-story office building, theater, restaurant, two retail spaces and a public plaza.
Other developers with investments in the area, and looking to go dense are: Federal Realty, with its 24-acre Mid-Pike Plaza (Site Plan for 16.3 acres was submitted on August 3rd) and Promark, with its 11-acre North Bethesda Gateway (no Site Plan submitted yet).
In January of this year, the Montgomery County Planning Board approved the sketch plans for all three of the aforementioned projects: North Bethesda Market II, North Bethesda Gateway and Mid-Pike Plaza. The sketch plan submission is a relatively new step in the approval process (not as exciting for developers) that came with the new White Flint Sector Plan.
Trimmer added, "White Flint is a very good development opportunity; it has strong existing amenities and a large portion of underutilized land."
Another reason developers might eye the North Bethesda area is the 10-percent commercial property tax increase (part of the new Sector Plan) that will help finance an estimated $208 million in construction (and infrastructure improvements) during its lifespan. Last December, Montgomery County officials projected that new growth in the White Flint area could bring in as much as $6.8 billion.
update: Greg Trimmer with JBG, not Trimmen
Washington D.C. real estate development news
18 comments:
Wow! That's an awesome looking building.
I've never seen that rendering before (maybe I've just missed it), but that's really something. Will be interestign to see how it looks once completed. Who'da thought there would be a day when we'd see architecture like this spring up around the White Flint station?
Wow, definitely should get props for going outside the box.
Well, it's not exactly outside the box. More like lots of little boxes.
Touché.
Definitely outside the box, give it its due. Heinously ugly, but outside the box nonetheless. Glad I live in DC and won't even have to drive by that pile of crap.
Hard to tell if it'll be ugly, but either way it beats all the mundane crap in DC that's passed off as architecture.
Beauty, of course, being in the eye of the beholder.
I like the side that's a jumble of blocks, very Enrique Norten/Bjarke Ingels, but the back elevation just looks like a flat blank wall.
Good to see some novelty in the area.
WOW what an expensive looking piece of crap. Ben Jacobs must have alzheimers.
From the look of this chaotic mess Studios should obviously stick to what they do best, corporate interiors.
Frankly, I think this is what should be built at 7th and H...
I didn't think anything could be uglier than the hodge-podgey mess that is the JBG Whole Foods.
Finally, some attempt to refrain from the mundane in DC architecture. Too bad its in Bethesda and not DC proper.
@цarьchitect
beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. beauty exists whether you or i see/recognize it as such or not.
i always hated that phrase. its like when people call things 'zen'...
beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. beauty exists whether you or i see/recognize it as such or not.
No. Otherwise, you cannot explain Donald Trump.
Even if there are senses of beauty common to all people, the beauty doesn't exist without an observer.
I don't know how to feel about NBM II. I want to see more adventurous design in and around DC, but I'm unnerved by the giant indentation in the first rendering. Are apartments going to be there? Would they receive any sunlight? And is JBG really gonna throw all their money at this giant wall of "little boxes" and just have blank, boring facades on the other sides? It's not like those are party walls - they're facing streets, and they should be visually engaging.
@цarьchitect
obviously you know nothing of the objective truth of beauty and the transcendentals. a way of looking at things that seems to have been lost in western society. beauty is an intellectual abstraction. it is inherent in everything, waiting to be discovered...or not discovered...even with the likes of trump. just because you deem that not beautiful, does not mean it is a universal truth. it doesn't exist purely on the basis of whether you deem it to be beautiful or not. how presumptuous!
"pretty" is a more accurate description of what you mean to articulate. and in this day and age where words and meaning become more and more diluted, i take a stand for the case of proper semantics!
I wonder what JBG's exit strategy is.....all those glass railings and difficult waterproofing details facing the direction of predominant wind and storms? Either JBG is going to hold this for the long term or their leaders must think the pension funds and institutional holders are fools.
And the really plain facades facing the neighbors? That will be an interesting entitlement challenge.
If they are trying to claim LEED the energy model will go through the roof with all that perimeter and south facing glass. Must not be LEED - also an entitlement challenge in MoCo
Good luck with that.
Post a Comment
Commercial ads will be deleted, so don't even think about it.