A Visit to East Campus
With the public input process well under way, more and more information is being released about the East Campus project.
On a mild weekday afternoon this past August, I decided to take some pictures to capture “before” images to contrast with the rough renderings that Foulger-Pratt released last spring to the general public. I parked my car in Lot OO by the Shuttle-UM bus depot and walked down currently existing Greenhouse Road where it intersects Campus Drive. From there I walked to the intersection of Route 1/Baltimore Ave and Paint Branch Parkway where a planned 12-story hotel would anchor the new development and provide a gateway to the East Campus for those traveling southbound on Route 1. The current view of this corner includes the campus mail facility.
Compare that to this image from the conceptual drawings released by Foulger-Pratt/Argo Investment of the same location.
Click read more for more before and after comparisons.
From there I walked south on Route 1 to the intersection of a service driveway just past Harrison Lab. This nondescript alley is scheduled to be a major pedestrian traffic node, located across the Engineering Fields and perhaps the future location of the Purple Line.
Planners of the new development have envisioned the intersection of Route 1 and “Terrapin Place” to be the main campus gateway for those on foot, bike, or train. In their presentations to the campus community, the developers have talked up the idea of this majestic view of campus from this area of the new development. This is what they may have in mind:
There is no existing pedestrian access across Route 1 between the intersections of Paint Branch Parkway and Rossborough Lane. Some form of traffic-calming device would be placed at this new intersection (tentatively named Terrapin Place) of either a traffic signal or a roundabout to slow Route 1 traffic to encourage pedestrian traffic.
A short walk down Route 1 leads to the intersection of Rossborough Lane near the Visitor’s Center, where a new office building would replace the existing Service Building, located just across the renovated Richie Coliseum. Here’s the before and after.
Crossing Route 1 at this intersection right now requires a 2-minute wait to get right-of-way. This will need to be redesigned accordingly to facilitate better access from the main campus into the new East Campus. Along Rossborough Lane, one sees Lot K to the right behind Fraternity Row, which would be replaced by new restaurants and specialty stores. Upon taking a left at the Greenhouse Drive intersection, one enters the “heart” of the future development, with a plaza designed in a triangular wedge between the existing power plant and the planned north-south thoroughfare. Lot K and the Plant Operations and Maintenance Complex is on the right.
Walking through this area, the steady hum of the power plant comes to immediate attention, and therefore “white noise” such as splash fountains are planned. The power plant will continue to be a major point of interest in the redeveloped East Campus, as any new retail and storefronts will have to coexist with the power plant. Here is a conceptual illustration of the same intersection.
Greenhouse Drive intersects with the aforementioned service driveway (future Terrapin Place). Past the existing Building Services Operation building and an additional Plant Operations and Maintenance building, the street comes to a terminus at the UM-shuttle bus depot at Campus Drive, just a few feet from Paint Branch Parkway.
Here is the revamped intersection facing northeast with Terrapin Place running with overhead wires to accommodate a new light-rail line.
There is a gas pipe that runs underneath the entire length of the street. The developers’ choice to keep the line intact influenced their decision to maintain much of the location of the current street and to locate the new plaza at its particular location in order to keep the line underneath existing right-of-way.
Overall, the redesigned East Campus area will undergo a massive upheaval where only the power plant will be the only recognized feature of today’s East Campus. Compared to the barrenness that exists presently, the new East Campus should be a welcome rejuvenation and a much better use of the provided space.
For more photos, check out here.
Click here to view our interactive project map
September 7th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Fairy tales may come true. It could happen to you.
September 8th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Take a walk in Downtown Silver Spring and Bethesda Row before we write this off as a fairy tale. This WILL happen.
September 8th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Do we want this to look like Silver Spring or Bethesda Row? As the home of the state of Maryland’s flagship university, College Park should be a unique college town, not a re-creation of Silver Spring.
September 9th, 2007 at 9:13 am
The rendering is a beautiful vision: shiny, new, no bikes, and no character. How wonderful!
I’m new to the area, but the amount of money this looks to bring in wouldn’t seem like it could come from students. So, this would be looking to create swanky new digs for whom? More people that the infrastructure cannot accomodate. Oh wait there’ll be a new train, right? Oh sweet! Fantabulous!
Seriously though, these conceptual drawings are way out of line with reality. The idea should be to build lots of residential along route 1, with mixed use, ground level zoning. Light rail is a ridiculous dream that will take 50 years or more and tons of money. At best route one can hope for bus rapid transit (looks like light rail, costs far less) or maybe some bike lanes to encourage bicycle commutes and get bicyclists off the side walks. The main idea is to get most students to drop their crazy commutes in cars and live closer to campus. This requires a)tons of nearby affordable housing with preferencial student placement that are not dorms, b)more small businesses to provide the usual amenities to which people are accustomed (recreation and shopping), c)a redesigned route 1 with significant traffic calming upgrades (right now it’s the usual death trap with speeding motorists), d)landscaping upgrades, e) encouraging of alternative modes of transport by the campus. The first step towards any of this might be to zone smaller parcels. Building a trade joes and a whole foods, or a movie complex, or new and beautiful housing for DC commuters would be nice in some sense, but without any improvements to the existing surrounding infastructure would only further exacerbate the real problem: who wants to do anything along a highway and traffic nightmare?
It will be interesting to see how things progress.
September 9th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
David / Rob / et al: It looks like we might actually have our first occurence of censoring replies,
Congrats Cherry, you have the honor of being the first dirtbag to ever get booted off RTCP. What an honor! Whats with the vitriol? Is it really necessary? maybe you should transfer to Chapel Hill or Ann Arbor since CP has made you such an agry little so-and-so.
September 9th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
oh and by the way - Michael, great piece. this is great work. this helps people who can not take renderings and place them into the context of the existing conditions. well done. thanks for posting, now if you will excuse me i am going to go post this to some other maryland sites to get other folks in the loop.
September 9th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Kevin is correct, I have deleted a comment left by “Cherry” because it contained a personal attack on an individual. This is the first out of 946 comments I have deleted.
September 10th, 2007 at 8:38 am
This is a great post, it really helped me visualize the East Campus project. Thanks Michael! When I saw Cherry’s post yesterday morning I was very disappointed (no moderation?). Thanks for removing that post!
September 10th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Hi Rethink College Park Folk, Have been reading your Web-Site for the last year and just signed-up. I have been riding a Bicycle for over 60 years and find it a fun and easy way to travel around College Park and the UofM. Anytime I attend a meeting in/at the CP/UofM, I always ride my Bike and park at the front door and don’t have to leave the meeting several times to feed the parking meter or worry about getting a ticket.
I think/feel Rethink CP is on the right track and presents many sides of the situations confronting CP/UofM and plan to add my over 40 years of experience in CP to make it a More/Livable/Walkable/Bikeable Region even though I now live 30 miles north in Ellicott City. I serve on the new Bike Committee at the UofM.You folks are on the right track . Keep up the good work Bike Kelly-CPABC
September 10th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Seriously though, these conceptual drawings are way out of line with reality. David Quan
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I agree with David.
September 10th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
I think it is pretty safe to say that there is almost universal agreement that we do not want to replicate Bethesda, Silver Spring and the like and that as a college town we should strive for something that feels more “organic”
Specifically: no stucco (or “dryvit” i think its called, forgive me, im not a tradesman) -
But here is the real beauty of this opportunity - there is a process in place where we all can be heard. Your ideas should be contributed to this site and to the process that this site is doing such a great job of advertising. GO TO THE MEETINGS! SPEAK UP! Even better, bring your ideas with you in writing and if you dont have the chance to speak, give them to Doug Duncan or any of the reps leading the sessions. The more you participate, the more themes will emerge.
Its the beginning of a new era, so its time to drop the “Ill believe it when i see it” and “it will never happen” negativity. This project makes too much sense and even with a credit crunch and a housing slump, its going to happen. The fundamentals are too sound not to. Instead of posting negativity here Jane and David, I hope you attend the meetings and make you thoughts known. There is a first class team in place and your input is valued.
September 13th, 2007 at 12:11 am
Forgive me for being another glib passerby, but I’m not sure David Quan’s concerns can be dismissed with a word so vague it needs to be quotes and a ban on stucco. Unless that was a joke.
September 13th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
no, im not joking. I think dryvit is the offical name for that synthetic stucco that we so much of these days. (any architecture or engineering students on here? anyone with experience in construction?)
its obviously cheaper that brick, block, and stone and i for one fear it will be over-used to contain costs. i know to most i seem like a dreamer when i say i hope that we dont go too “on the cheap” and i hope that we make east campus look almost like an old downtown/mainstreet streetscape with buildings of varying facades - some brick, some block, some stone, maybe a few stucco, and some glass. we have such a beautiful classic campus so i hope this new development does not look like just that: one big new development. curious to know how others feel about that
September 13th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Andrew - one other thought - I was not dismissing David’s comments. I was referring to a large building facade in Silver spring that is this massive windowless stucco wall. they placed a few banners to try to break it up (Mens Wearhouse….the photo is on here somewhere) but it just doesnt look good. i hope we strive for better.
September 13th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I believe you are referring to this post Kevin:
http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2006/211/
The sector plan requires majority brick (See Mazza Grandmarc). It would be unlikely that the planning board would pass this up for something that is not at least comparable quality.
September 13th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
It’ll be a neat trick if East Campus can pull off an “authentic” and/or “organic” look, which isn’t to say that it’s impossible but forcing the issue can certainly have the opposite effect. Mixed facades are key. No matter what happens, everything will look new for years. It will be a generation or more until East Campus resembles a genuine college town, if ever. Keep in mind that there is only one overseeing developer, FP-Argo; subdevelopers will have to design their projects within the architectural parameters imposed by FP-Argo. Of course, UM and the College Park community have some say into what those parameters will be but it will be FP-Argo’s show to run.
I recently drove by the new Parole development site in Annapolis, which is similar in size and ambition to East Campus. Construction is in full swing and already the facades on the few walls erected practically scream “shop me!” It is exactly what I don’t want to see here.
September 14th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
i hope that we make east campus look almost like an old downtown/mainstreet streetscape with buildings of varying facades
That is possible, but it require the right architect (or teams of architects). For a nearby example, check out Quinlan Terry’s Merchant Square buildings in Williamsburg. Terry is a master of historical detailing, and has drawn from a variety of sources to create buildings that are “surprising as well as familiar, which look as though they belong in Merchants Square, without repeating well-known, well-loved details seen along Williamsburg’s streets” (in the words of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).
Of course, any reference to traditional styles will immediately draw a chorus of invective from modernist architects. The words will be predictable: obsolete, not of our time, inauthentic, Disneyland, pastiche. If people want buildings as beautiful as Merchant’s Square, they’ll need to be prepared for an onslaught of stylistic complaint.
The designs pictured in the East Campus conceptual drawings are a hodgepodge of banality and glittery clutter. The developers are happy with that because it’s cheaper than beauty. Beauty, whether it be traditional or modernist, is more expensive.
It’s hard to find modernist districts that are both beautiful and pedestrian friendly. One city that does reasonably well in that respect is Brisbane. Here’s a presentation about Brisbane’s streetscapes, assembled by a visiting city planner.
September 15th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Hm, the Bisbane link didn’t come through. Here it is again:
http://picasaweb.google.com/maruglenn/LessonsFromBrisbane/