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New Town Center
Inventory No.:
PG:68-104
Other Name(s):
University Town Center, Prince George's Plaza
Date Listed:
10/23/2018
Location:
6505 Belcrest Road ; 6525 Belcrest Road; 3700 East West Highway, Hyattsville, Prince Georges County
Category:
Building
Period/Date of Construction:
1962-1971
Architect/Builder:
Blumberg, Marvin and Herschel, Developers Stone, Edward Durell, Architect
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Description:
New Town Center, initially developed between 1963 and 1971, consisted of three buildings designed by Edward Durell Stone named Metro 1, 2 and 3. A second campaign, which is not considered historically or architecturally significant, began in the late 1990s, consisting of low- and high-rise buildings interspersed among the original construction, as well as two paved parking lots to the south. All three buildings, although constructed over nearly a decade, share a common vocabulary of material, massing and design. Resembling a Classical column with a base, shaft and capital, they are clad in the modern materials of cast stone and glazed white brick and have a regular fenestration pattern with 3-sided aluminum oriel windows. Metro 1 is an 8 ½-story rectangular building located near the southwest corner of the site. It was the first building in the complex, designed between 1962 and 1963. The east and west elevations are 10 bays wide and the north and south elevations are 30 bays wide with a total of 290,000 square feet. All elevations are clad in fluted white cast concrete. Encircling the first floor is a covered veranda with a painted white metal railing, and there are prominent projecting eaves between the first and second floor and along the roofline. The fenestration pattern is consistent on all elevations. The first floor and basement have one-light aluminum storefront windows in all bays. The second through 7th floors have narrow 3-sided aluminum oriel windows. The 8th floor has taller 3-sided aluminum oriel windows. The building has a flat roof with a centered one-story penthouse. The primary entrance of the building, facing Belcrest road, contains paired contemporary aluminum sliding doors with 2-light aluminum transoms and 1-light aluminum sidelights. Metro 2 is a 10 ½-story building located near the center of the site. It was the second building in the complex, designed in 1967. Also, 30 bays by 10, Metro 2 contains 385,000 square feet. On all elevations, the first and second floors are clad in glazed white brick and the upper floors are clad in fluted white cast concrete. As the bottom two floors have a larger floor plate than the upper floors, they are topped by a veranda with a painted white metal railing. The veranda is covered by a freestanding aluminum canopy supported by fluted cast concrete columns. The fenestration pattern is consistent on all elevations, the first and second floors have one-light aluminum windows separated by metal spandrel panels. The 3rd through 9th floors have narrow 3-sided aluminum oriel windows and the 10th floor has taller ones, as in Metro 1. It also has a centered penthouse and flat roof. Projecting from the first floor of the west elevation is a 2005 one-story addition. Projecting from the east end of the south elevation is a one-story vestibule containing the original principal entrance. Clad in fluted cast concrete to match the remainder of the building, it has large 1-light windows and a double-leaf glazed aluminum door and a revolving aluminum door that open to the south. Metro 3 is an 11-story building located near the northwest corner of the site. It was the third building in the complex, designed in 1971. Also 30 by 10 bays, Metro 3 contains 420,000 square feet. All elevations are clad in fluted white cast concrete. Metro 3’s first two floors contain the same veranda and canopy as Metro 2. The primary entrance is located in the center of the north elevation, consisting of three double-leaf gazed aluminum doors with 1-light aluminum transoms. The entrance bays are surrounded by a 1-story, three bay cast concrete porch supported by concrete pillars and topped by a flat roof. The fenestration pattern is consistent on all elevations. The first through 3rd floors have 3-sided aluminum storefront windows. The 4th through 10th floors have the narrow 3-sided aluminum oriel windows, and the 11lth floor has the taller windows. The building also has the flat roof and penthouse of the other buildings.
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Significance:
New Town Center is historically significant in the area of Politics and Government, as an early and sizeable example of the General Services Administration (GSA) policy of the consolidation and decentralization of leased space in suburban Washington, DC in the mid-20th century. This strategy, which began in 1950 and continued through the 1960s, was both a pragmatic response to the Cold War-era threat of nuclear attack destroying the Capital in one blow, and a fiscally prudent adoption of the cheaper, larger and more flexible real estate offered by the outlying areas. The development of New Town Center, which began in the 1950s, began as a large scale, suburban, speculative office development but capitalized on this approach to finance its construction and relied on it for a consistent tenant base. By targeting itself to Federal agencies under the oversight of the GSA, the majority of Metro 1 and Metro 2 were leased before construction was complete. The period of significance begins in 1962, when construction began on the project, and ends in 1971, when the final building was constructed; the GSA continued to lease space in New Town Center beyond that date.
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