Visit to housing, library and fire station underscores possibilities for improving quality of architecture and urban design throughout Montgomery County
SILVER SPRING, MD – The Montgomery County Planning Board part of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, visited several new buildings in Downtown Silver Spring on April 16, 2015 to gain a better understanding of how projects recently approved by the Board have come to fruition. In addition, the afternoon walking tour underscored the goals of the Planning Department’s newly launched Design Excellence initiative to elevate architecture and urban design in the County.
“The tour gave us the chance to see the impact of high quality design and the ways these new buildings fit into the fabric of the County,” said Planning Board Casey Anderson, who led the tour.
Also in attendance were Planning Board members Norman Dreyfuss, Natali Fani-González and Marye Wells-Harley, as well as Planning Department Director Gwen Wright, Deputy Director Rose Krasnow and Parks and Planning staff.
Tour stops included the new Fenwick and Eleven55 Apartments, Silver Spring Fire Station No. 1 and the Silver Spring Public Library, which is now under construction.
“It was gratifying to see these buildings come to be,” said Wells-Harley. “I now know what design excellence really means.”
The projects were selected for the tour based on their incorporation of key strategies promoted by the Design Excellence program and recent County Master and Sector Plans, as follows:
-Fresh, contemporary civic and residential architecture appropriate for urban-style density, as in Downtown Silver Spring.
-Proximity of affordable housing and community resources, as evident in the new Silver Spring Public Library.
-Low-impact, environmentally sensitive stormwater management areas integrated into landscaped open spaces and streetscapes, as realized at the Fenwick Apartments.
-Provision of a public park and connections to surrounding businesses and Metrorail, as in the Eleven55 Apartments development.
-Co-location of several public uses on a single parcel as in the fire station, which shares its site with a police substation, offices and community space.
View the video recap of the Board’s Design Excellence tour of downtown Silver Spring.
About the Design Excellence Initiative:
As one of the nation’s wealthiest and most educated counties, Montgomery County deserves neighborhoods, public spaces and buildings of the highest quality design to reflect this prosperity and maintain a competitive edge within our region. Design excellence is becoming increasingly important as the amount of available land for development in the County is shrinking and densities in our centers are increasing. These development challenges present a greater need to create attractive, safe and sustainable places to live, work and play.
In January 2015, the Planning Department advanced its Design Excellence Initiative by consulting with nationally recognized urban design and planning expert Noré Winter for three days. Winter met with planning staff about the creation and implementation of effective design guidelines and then presented many of these ideas to the Planning Board and community.
Next steps in continuing the Design Excellence Initiative include updating the Planning Department’s design guidelines process and creating an advisory panel of experts to consult with the Planning Director and staff on design-related decisions. Learn more about the Design Excellence Initiative: www.montgomeryplanning.org/design