The Silver Spring Penguin

A planned condo on Thayer Avenue makes the most of a tricky lot and a “jewel” of an alleyway.

“It’s more like a country lane,” East Silver Spring resident Caleb Kreisberg told the planning board Thursday. The alley adjacent to 814 Thayer Ave, where a five-story condo will be built, has a small-town quality, he said.

“It links the busy Fenton area with the more residential area of Grove Street,” Kreisberg said. “I hope that graceful line can be retained.”

The plan is to access the condo’s first-floor garage through the alley, which opens onto the east side of Fenton Street. Edward Papazian, a traffic engineer for the project’s developer, said the alley’s character would be maintained.

“We’re not talking about a lot of through traffic,” Papazian told the planning board. “Any pedestrian activity will be relatively safe.”

The tricky part to building the condo’s 52 units would be squeezing it onto the long, narrow lot, said Susan Ruddersham, a spokesperson for developer Four Points LLC. The site once was the home office for the National Association of the Deaf.

In addition to the site’s dimensions, architects had to contend with its neighbor across the street. The Silver Spring Towers is a 16-story apartment building that could have created solid-brick northern views for the condo’s residents.

Instead, architects shifted the project’s windows to face either east or west. That way, condo residents would have views up and down Thayer Avenue, not directly across the street at the apartment building, Four Points’ Stan Voudrai explained.

“Your design carries the day,” planning commissioner John Robinson commented.