Rethink College Park

As many are well aware, RTCP is in semi-hibernation mode at the moment. We’re planning on a kickoff meeting to discuss the future of the site sometime in May. Until then there are a couple tid-bits to report despite the dampened state of the real estate market. Thanks to everyone who continues to email and post comments about all the great changes coming to the city….

-> Starview Plaza - The Diamondback reports that Starview Plaza is progressing through the early stages of the approval process. The project, which sits just north of College Park Carwash, has languished for years (at least 5?) and the underlying land is owned jointly by the City and University. Originally planned as a hotel, the developer now plans a 500-bed mixed use student housing project with an impressive LEED Silver rating. As the Diamondback reports, there has been much debate over exactly what materials should be used on the facade. The Sector Plan requires 75% brick and as the Mazza Grandmarc debate showed us, the city and the county in particular hold tightly to that standard regardless of how visible certain parts of the building are. The choice is between hardyplank - a composite of recycled materials which helps a buildings LEED rating - and brick (an energy-intensive material) on the least visible parts of the building. Let’s hope the county council departs from its absolutist ways by avoiding unneccessary delays…

-> Campus Construction - The University has released an updated campus construction map, which shows progress on several different projects we’ve blogged about over time. The new journalism building is progressing, the Tyser Tower expansion at Byrd Stadium is underway, and improvements to the Southwest quad and in front of the business school are coming to a close. Also, North Gate Park, a project mired in bureaucracy, funding constraints, and development SNAFUS for the better part of four years is scheduled to start construction this summer. North Gate Park is a joint venture between the city and university and was designed by undergraduate students. 

-> Parking - Recognizing the serious burden that parking requirement place on private developers of student housing, UMD-DOTS via the university’s strategic plan has agreed that students at select off-campus housing complexes can park on-campus. This is a smart move that we think could pay serious dividends by encouraging more student housing. Building lots on Route 1 are small and shallow, thus making the provision of suburban-style parking ratios extremely difficult for dense mixed-use projects. Hopefully the city/county can capitalize on this new policy to implement their Transportation Demand Management plans.

-> Purple Line - There are signs that Campus Drive advocates are making serious inroads. More to come shortly.

Last week we reported on the imminent construction of North Gate Park - a project coordinated by the City-University Partnership and whose final design was derived from a 22-student sophomore Landscape Architecture class competition. Add in some grants, several organizations, and some very meaningful stakeholder participation and out comes a project whose benefits can’t be emphasized enough.

The park will provide a bus shelter and much needed pedestrian link to campus while respecting the Paint Branch’s forested stream buffer and incorporates sustainable design and building materials. It will contain a rain garden to reduce runoff, environmental interpretive signs, and an orchard for your gorging pleasure. Since our first post we’ve spoken with Jack Sullivan, the instructor and assistant professor who worked closely on the North Park effort (see more details). He was kind enough to send us this pamphlet with some other great schematics of the project. We hope North Gate Park will be a powerful model and constant reminder of how different members of the community can and do work towards common goals.

With technical and artistic expertise, academic curiosity and scholarship, and unbounded enthusiasm, students have created a beautiful, comfortable and sustainable design.

University officials are in the final planning stages of the long awaited North Gate Park: a combination pedestrian bridge and environmental restoration project - all on a 5 acre lot between the university’s North Gate and Jerry’s Sub on the Paint Branch Stream. The university is waiting for final approval from the Maryland Department of Environment and FEMA since the project is located within the 100-year floodplain. The final price tag is still unknown according to Richard Poley of Facilities Management, but the state could potentially contribute $830,000 once the final bids from contractors come in. The university would pay any price difference.

Although the new project is less ambitious than originally planned, with just one bridge and a ‘less elaborate’ entrance, Poley told us he felt that it still held true to the plan that emerged from an undergraduate landscape architecture design competition in 2004.

John Porcari, Vice President of Administrative Affairs, speculated to us earlier this month that the second bridge and other additions to the park may not be pursued until plans for a luxury hotel just north of the park are confirmed. Two condominium projects north of University View, including the approved North Gate Condos, along with the East Campus Development Initiative will inevitably make this now underused parcel a vital pedestrian link and public space for students and city residents alike. North Gate Park is a great example of how different levels of government combined with some student idealism can go a long way towards improving College Park.