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Urban Design Experts Discuss Design Guidelines at Public Event on January 27

 

Public presentation at Silver Spring Civic Center will explore the creation and implementation of quality design guidelines for community development in Montgomery County

Silver Spring, MDThe Montgomery County Planning Department, part of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, is consulting with nationally recognized urban design and planning expert Noré Winter to upgrade its design guidelines for master plans and review. This initiative is part of a broader effort to implement design excellence throughout the County.

Winter’s work will include a public presentation and discussion of the creation and implementation of effective design guidelines on Tuesday, January 27, 2015. The event will be held from 7-9 p.m. at the Silver Spring Civic Center (1 Veterans Plaza, Silver Spring, Md.). The event will consist of a lecture given by Noré Winter and a discussion with urban design experts and the community about how to improve the County’s master plan design guidelines with the goal of achieving greater design excellence.

RSVP for the free community event on Tuesday, January 27 from 7-9 p.m. at the Silver Spring Civic Building.

Learn more about the Montgomery County Planning Department’s Design Excellence initiative.

About Noré Winter:
President of Winter & Company in Boulder, Colorado, Noré Winter specializes in developing guidelines for communities with distinctive natural settings and traditional neighborhoods at the urban, suburban and rural levels. He has worked on projects in 48 states for both local governments and federal agencies, and from large cities to small private developments.

Winter is frequently a featured speaker at conferences sponsored by organizations such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, National Park Service and the American Planning Association. From 1992-1996, he served as Chairman of the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions.

“Noré Winter understands that design guidelines must be tailored to the specifics of place and region,” says Montgomery County Planning Department Director Gwen Wright. “His expertise will help us develop clearer and stronger guidelines that will foster a higher level of design excellence and a better public realm, while at the same time help communities, developers and different public agencies to better understand and implement design goals for our communities.”

About the Panelists:
Joining Winter in the discussion about design guidelines on January 27 will be the following experts:

John Carter is the Division 3 Chief at the Maryland–National Capital Park and Planning Commission where he has worked for more than 25 years. During his career, he has been involved in all phases of planning and urban design in the Planning Department, including work with the Bethesda, Friendship Heights and Silver Spring central business district plans, and recently with the Sandy Spring, Clarksburg and Germantown plans. Prior to joining the M-NCPPC, he was an associate with Perkins and Will Architects and Planners in Washington, DC. John has been a leading force in graphically oriented design guidelines in the Planning Department.

William Kirwan, AIA, LEED AP, is Principal of Muse Architects in Bethesda. In 2009, he was appointed to the Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission and currently serves as its chair. Kirwan serves as an adjunct faculty member of the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at the University of Maryland, and a member of the Washington Chapter/AIA Board of Directors as Director for Design Issues.

Karen Kumm Morris, RLA, FASLA, is an award-winning landscape architect and urban designer with extensive experience in land use planning, urban design, parks and streetscape designs. She formerly served on the Arlington Planning Commission in Virginia. During her career at the M-NCPPC, she worked on master plans for Bethesda and Shady Grove.