Planning Department’s Historic Preservation Office honored for raising community appreciation of County’s midcentury modern architecture and design
SILVER SPRING, MD – The Historic Preservation Office of the Montgomery County Planning Department, part of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, has been honored with the Excellence in Community Engagement Award from the Maryland Historical Trust. The award was announced at the 2015 Maryland Preservation Awards ceremony, hosted by the Maryland Historical Trust Board of Trustees and held on Thursday, March 27 at the Miller Senate Office Building in Annapolis.
This accolade recognizes the success of the Montgomery Modern program, launched by the Planning Department’s Historic Preservation Office in 2013 to raise awareness of the County’s remarkable legacy of mid-20th-century architecture and design. The educational and outreach initiative has included bus and bike tours of mid-20th-century modern neighborhoods and buildings, and an interactive website. A book documenting the County’s midcentury structures is now being researched and written by staff architectural historian Clare Lise Kelly.
“This is a tremendous honor for the Planning Department in recognizing our efforts to educate and inform the public about some of our most under-appreciated historical resources,” says Gwen Wright, Planning Director. “Montgomery County has a great legacy of midcentury modern architecture that needs to be better understood, celebrated and preserved.”
View the Maryland Department of Planning Maryland Historical Trust press release announcing the the programs and people recognized at the 40th Maryland Preservation Awards.
Learn more about the Montgomery County Planning Department’s Historic Preservation Office.