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Concept in City
Planning Promotes Livable Communities
WASHINGTON DC – One of the hottest movements
in contemporary urban planning is about to gain a major presence
in the greater
Washington region. Maple Lawn, under development at the intersection
of Routes 216 and 29 near Columbia, Md., will deliver a livable,
sustainable community based on Traditional Neighborhood Development
(TND) principles.
One of the great dissatisfactions of contemporary living is the
blight of sprawling commercial corridors, office parks and housing
blocks radiating ever further outward from major metropolitan centers.
Over the past several decades, this pattern of development has
resulted in snarled traffic, frustrating commute times for workers,
and the separation of individuals, couples and families from recreational
and cultural amenities. The greater Washington region is particularly
notorious for this.
TND seeks to reverse this trend. Harking back to a time before
automobile dependency took root, TND fosters compact, cohesive
communities in which residential areas are gently integrated with
pedestrian-friendly town centers to create a natural interplay
of private and public spaces.
A key concept of TND is pedestrian friendliness.
As much as possible, TND seeks to place public spaces – shops, offices, theaters,
and parks – within convenient walking distance of surrounding
residential areas. Buildings are close to the street, and garages
and parking lots are hidden from the streetscape. Streets are laid
out in interconnected grid networks to disperse traffic and ease
walking. And wherever possible streets are lined with attractive
trees.
Mixed Use is another important TND principle. Within neighborhoods,
within blocks and even within buildings, TND seeks to create a
healthy mixture of offices, shops and homes. And among homes, TND
places a range of different types, sizes and prices in close proximity.
TND emphasizes putting nearly all structures into greater proximity
to one another. The resulting density contributes to pedestrian
friendliness. At the same time, the structure of the TND community
preserves a definite distinction between the center of town and
the edge of town. The public space at the center is the densest,
with the density progressively diminishing toward the edge.
A final, important feature of TND is the incorporation of architecture
set to the human scale and emphasizing human comfort as well as
integration with the natural world. The distinctive design of both
residential and public buildings is one of the hallmarks of TND.
Maple Lawn’s developer, Greenebaum and Rose, is a Washington
area leader for high quality mixed-use developments. It was designed
by Design Collective, an award-winning architectural design and
planning firm renowned for its sustainable, mixed-use designs.
When Maple Lawn is completed in 2012, the community will provide
more than one million square feet of Class A office space, and
150,000 square feet of “Main Street” style retail in
a compact, well laid out downtown resembling that of a traditional
small town center of the early 1900s.
Maple Lawn will also feature upon completion
1,116 residential units spanning a variety of housing types and
price ranges. Greenebaum
and Rose has selected the firms Miller and Smith and Mitchell & Best
to undertake the building of Maple Lawn. Both firms have won numerous
prestigious awards and are held in the highest regard within the
building industry for their TND triumphs.
Maple Lawn, Maryland is developed by Greenebaum
and Rose Associates, Inc., a Washington area leader for high
quality mixed-use developments.
Greenebaum and Rose is a privately held full-service real estate
development and management company with offices in Washington,
D.C. and Baltimore. Founded in 1979, the firm develops, owns and
manages mixed-use projects, urban and suburban office buildings,
research and development/business park facilities, shopping centers
and residential communities. The firm has developed more than 3
million square feet of commercial space and more than 10,000 residential
lots. Greenebaum & Rose has earned a reputation for developing
award-winning projects to suit the needs of commercial businesses,
clients and residents. The company brings expertise in project
and construction management, leasing, property management, finance
and government relations.
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