We are at Bradley Hills and happy there as well. Check out the Greenwich Forest, Battery Park neighborhoods (20814) in between Huntington Parkway and Wilson Lane. They are zoned for Bradley Hills and some of the houses are in reasonable walking distance to downtown Bethesda and the metro. The lots are mixed and some are small, but there are some newer construction houses that would be within your price range. Good luck and welcome to Bethesda!

Given your criteria, I'd look in Mohican Hills, Glen Echo Heights, and Tulip Hill. All feed into Wood Acres ES/Pyle Middle/Whitman HS (Whitman HS is consistently ranked top in the state). There are some modern homes in these neighborhoods, with wooded lots and winding streets, a stone's throw from the Potomac River and hiking trails. You would need to drive to metro and shops but not far. This is a great pocket of Bethesda for commuting, too, because it is close to downtown, the rest of MoCo and NoVa.

Kenwood isn't modern and a turnkey house in Kenwood will be well over $2m.

The modern houses are mainly mid century and likely below ops budget and target range. There are some nice moderns built on tear down lots but maybe none on the market at any given time.

I would prefer Whitman to BCC (ducks) but it's complicated. When Westbard is redeveloped something has to happen to the boundaries as there isn't room at Pyle to accommodate the increase. Nobody knows what this is, yet (joys of county wide schools).

The area just west of downtown Bethesda is an easy walk to downtown Bethesda and a slightly longer walk to Bethesda metro. Bear in mind something is going to happen with the Sidwell lower school property. Probably best to not be adjacent to it. If it matters, right now you need to be west of Glenbrook Rd to be zoned for Whitman.

Lastly, if you care about swim and tennis, check with the local club where you plan to buy about their wait list and whether you get privileges that run with the house. In my experience this is an area that some agents hand wave past.