Community Corner

Report: Demolition of Apex Building Considered for Purple Line Station

Demolishing the building would provide for a more spacious Bethesda Purple Line station, and could provide for a separate tunnel under Wisconsin Avenue for the Capital Crescent Trail.

Montgomery County planners are eyeing Bethesda's Apex building—which houses the Regal Cinemas at 7272 Wisconsin Ave.—for possible demolition in order to build a spacious Bethesda Purple Line station with smooth connections to Metro's Bethesda station, Greater Greater Washington reported.

The Apex building sits over the current tracks of an old CSX rail line purchased by the county some years ago for the Purple Line, and along which currently runs the Capital Crescent Trail. The development rights over the tracks at 7272 Wisconsin Ave., however, belong to the Apex building's owners.

The Purple Line could run through the existing train tunnel under the Apex building, but that would leave little room for a well-designed Purple Line station with easy connections to Metro, and probably no room for the Capital Crescent Trail. Tearing down the Apex building—including the cinema, WJLA reported—would allow for a new train tunnel, a spacious station and easy connections to Metro, Greater Greater Washington reported.

It also would allow the Capital Crescent Trail to have its own tunnel under Wisconsin Avenue. If the Apex building is not demolished and the Purple Line station is right under it, there isn't much room left for the trail to run through the station, Greater Greater Washington reported.

Some earlier plans not factoring in the demolition of the Apex building had the trail crossing Wisconsin Avenue at the level of the street, which some said is not safe.

Part of the problem is that the Apex building's support columns are neither evenly spaced nor arranged in a square grid, and the tunnel that runs under the building is curved. A station in the tunnel would be cramped and would have columns across its platform, the county's planning department explained in a handout. (A county planning department drawing of how the station would run through the tunnel shows the irregular column layout.)

If the Apex building is demolished, its owners likely would receive permission to redevelop at a greater density, Greater Greater Washington reported.

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, which owns the Apex building, appears willing to discuss demolition, Bethesda Now reported.

>>>Read more about the station on the websites for Greater Greater Washington and Bethesda Now.


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