A Civilized Shopping Center - Chevy Chase Lake

The offices for Wentworth, Inc. www.wentworthstudio.com are located at the Chevy Chase Lake shopping center at the corner of Manor Road and Connecticut Avenue in Chevy chase, Maryland. Our design sensitive staff appreciates the nice office environment. We like our second floor space with windows on three sides for eastern, southern, and western exposures, and appreciate the natural light and the convenience of the small scale complex.

Our landlord, the Chevy Chase Land Company, takes good care of their investment. The property gets its name from the former man-made Chevy Chase Lake amusement park which was just to the south of the complex. I get a kick knowing that my father visited the amusement park while he was growing up in College Park, Maryland.

Our residential clients even like coming to our offices because of the easy parking on the surface lot and the understated but charming environment. Many of our clients have remarked at the charm of the older brick buildings with the wrought iron canopy supports. The Chevy Chase lake complex was built in the late 1950s or early 1960s and was designed by an architect who was sophisticated with the Colonial Revival style.

The complex consists of two buildings, one larger building for the super market, and a second smaller two-story building, for the retail & office space. Although the shopping center is of modest scale by today’s standards, these buildings feature solid masonry construction, brick arches, crown and dentil details, slate shingles for the roofs and double hung windows for ventilation. All of which provide a quaint human scale.

The architect was thoughtful in his use of protective canopies for rain and sun. Each building has a covered area along its main façade and the two are linked by a free-standing arcade that protects pedestrians from rain, snow and sun. When it rains I can get half way to my car without getting wet. The free standing canopy visually breaks up the parking lot so it does not feel like a hulking asphalt lot. The complex of small brick buildings will eventually be replaced with something larger…but for now we can enjoy what we have.

To learn more about Chevy Chase history visit www.chevychasehistory.org To learn more about Wentworth’s design/build services, visit www.wentworthstudio.com