Silver Spring project brings green space to transit

Moderate and high-density urban environments are more appealing when residents can connect with nature through access to green space. Transit-oriented developments (TODs), best designed around public spaces that provide surrounding neighborhoods with an identity, offer an opportunity to create parks.

That’s the central idea behind a redevelopment plan for 27 acres in Downtown Silver Spring, Maryland. Proposed are 2,800 residential units, office space, retail (including a grocery store), and a hotel. The $625 million project yields 100 units to the acre one block from the Metro station, in the form of urban blocks with a series of outdoor rooms.

Currently the site is an anomaly downtown — a superblock that Greater Greater Washington columnist Dan Reed called “a suburban relic.” It includes a strip mall with a Giant store, residential high rises, and a large surface parking lot. The block forms a barrier to neighborhoods southwest of downtown walking to Metro and other amenities. There are 1,400 residential units currently in The Blairs high-rise development, many of which are preserved in the new plan.

The project could start as early as 2014 — but will likely take at least 20 years to complete because the Giant has 15 years remaining on its lease.

The market is strong — DC and its close-in suburbs, particularly those walkable to transit, are booming with multifamily rental development now. A highly educated workforce is fueling the demand for walkable TODs. DC’s market continues to be one of the strongest for commercial development, according to Emerging Trends in Real Estate.

Silver Spring developed as a historic town on the outskirts of DC. Its downtown declined as sprawl swept around it in the latter half of the 20th Century. Several blocks downtown were demolished to build an automobile-oriented shopping mall that ultimately failed — leaving a hole at the center of town. Downtown began coming to life in the 1990s on a new urban model — a catalyst was redevelopment of the mall site — and is now a popular and regionally significant urban center.

The town’s revival is part of a broad trend toward mixed-use urban centers in the suburbs of DC — several dozen have sprung into being in the last two decades.

Existing public spaces

Downtown Silver Spring has many urban plazas. Several parks are four or five blocks away from The Blairs — just distant enough that downtown residents complained about a lack of green space, which is why Montgomery County planners wrote Silver Spring Green Space Guidelines. The guidelines emphasize the social importance of green space, offer guidance on design, and make the case for how developers can benefit. Case studies document higher housing values around green spaces in Kentlands and King Farm — new urban developments in nearby communities Gaithersburg and Rockville.

In response, the proposal by The Tower Companies, owners of The Blairs, offers five new small parks and better pedestrian linkages while expanding the size of downtown. “The first objective is to integrate the community, not just our community but the surrounding communities also,” the firm’s development director, Edward Murn told the Washington Business Journal. The parks will be programmed with cultural activities.

The project will go through review, including an analysis of the green space. One urbanist on a professional listserv commented that the public spaces — shown in images above — are overdesigned. “There are too many zig-zaggy pathways, unnecessary walls, grand staircases to nowhere,” he said. The commenter raised concerns about future maintenance costs and the usefulness of so many features. Nevertheless, the green spaces — as designed or with modifications — will be amenities that contribute to the identity and character of the neighborhood.

The urban design uses the “Vancouver model” of towers — some as high as 200 feet — on top of parking podiums wrapped by either townhouses with ground-floor entries or street-facing retail. The townhouses will provide an urban single-family option that is in short supply downtown.

Bing Thom Architects Inc., based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Boston-based Sasaki Associates Inc. drafted the plan. Sasaki Principal Alan Ward told the Business Journal that the layout was shaped by designing open spaces first and integrating the new buildings around them. Many of the old high-rises are preserved without compromising the urban block pattern.

At the corner nearest Metro, the site already has a Walk Score of 97, called “walker’s paradise.” This project will make the site even more walkable.

See www.montgomeryplanning.org/community/ssgreenspace/index.shtm to download the Silver Spring Green Space Guidelines.