Downtown Silver Spring in Silver Spring, Maryland, is a 22-acre mixed-use suburban downtown revitalization project. "Silver Spring’s core was at one time a non-descript area of parking lots, aging retail, office buildings, and boarded-up storefronts. It is now a thriving, mixed-use town center within an arts and entertainment district," writes John Marcolin, a Montgomery County planner.
Developed from Maryland’s Smart Growth policies, the “first ring” suburban project is the result of a public-private partnership. It involved the creation of retail, entertainment, office, and public spaces and multi-family housing units, as well as four vibrant, revitalized main streets that are safe and pedestrian-friendly.
The Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence 2005 selection committee stated:
"Downtown Silver Spring project worked with the architecture of the Discovery Center and its public park, the commons, and the Veterans Plaza on axis with the transit center."
Totaling $1.3 billion in investment, the revitalization has resulted in more than one million square feet of retail space including movie theaters and restaurants in a restored historic Art Deco building. The American Film Institute and the world headquarters for Discovery Communications are housed in newly developed office spaces. Located adjacent to a Metro stop, the project provides a transit-oriented model of redevelopment in a suburb serving a diverse population.
Similar Projects
Orleans Landing
Detroit, Michigan
In a sector of Detroit with diverse assets— waterfront land, brick industrial buildings, greenways, and historic streets—but little economic activity, the Orleans Landing project creates top-of-the-line urbanism.
Clarendon Center #thisisCNU
Arlington, Virginia
Building density that supports walkable urban centers is a key strategy of new urbanists—but this goal is challenging in already built-out suburbs.
Arise
South Bend, Indiana
Created by the City of South Bend and the firm Torti Gallas and Partners, Arise sets the goal of using limited resources to create a visionary— yet immediately implementable—plan to revitalize 10 struggling neighborhoods on the west side of the sh