Page 27 - ArchDC_Summer 2020

Close-up view of the façade of 4747 Bethesda Avenue,
Project: 4747 Bethesda Avenue/ showing the concave, embossed steel panels framing the windows.
Offices of JBG SMITH,
Bethesda, MD
Design Architects: Shalom Baranes Associates (base building,
rooftop, planning of amenity spaces); ZGF (main lobby, fitness
center, elevators); Partners by Design (JBG SMITH offices)
Architects of Record: MGMA
Landscape Architects: LandDesign
Structural Engineers: TCE & Associates
MEP Engineers: KTA Group
Civil Engineers: Johnson Bernat Associates
Branding Consultant (JBG SMITH offices): Spark
Contractor: LendLease (base building, lobby, amenity spaces);
James G. Davis Construction Corporation (JBG SMITH offices)

The Base Building
“There have been so many eyes focused on this project
since the beginning,” said Laura Croce, LEED AP,
senior designer at Shalom Baranes Associates. “It was
a small site but there were huge expectations.” She was
talking about the parcel of land near the intersection
of Bethesda and Woodmont avenues in the heart of
Downtown Bethesda where JBG SMITH Properties, a
leading real estate developer, is unveiling the 15-story
commercial building that houses its new corporate
offices as well as other business tenants.
Croce noted that the building site is steps from
the future Purple Line Metro Station and marks
the important transition from the high-rise urban
development now lining Bethesda’s booming
Wisconsin Avenue Corridor to the lower-scale
neighborhood of Bethesda Row with its shops,
restaurants, movie theater, and entry to the Capital
Crescent Trail. “The Montgomery County Planning
Department has been carefully tracking development
plans for this site,” said Croce. “JBG SMITH understood
its importance, and we worked with them from the
beginning to find the right solution.” Echoing that
collaboration, JBG SMITH executive vice president
Kristi Smith said, “We didn’t want just another glass Photo © Ron Blunt
box here; we were looking for something different.”
The result of this partnership is the kind of place- Roof terrace.
making architecture that, through carefully considered
massing, articulation, and materials, successfully
makes the connection between two vibrant areas of
distinctly different character and contributes to the
vitality of both.
Conceived as a series of three interlocking
volumes, the building includes a tall mass that
addresses Wisconsin Avenue to the east and is scaled
appropriately as a big-city presence among the
other corporate high-rises along this fast-developing
commercial corridor. A medium-scale volume along
Bethesda Avenue, where the building entry is located,
offers ground-level retail and is sized to the context of a
neighborhood commercial street. The third volume, on
the west side of the building, addresses Bethesda Row
and the newly created public space of Woodmont Plaza,
Photo © Ron Blunt

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