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Creative
Construction
Design
competition brings a new Civic Center to downtown Silver Spring
BY
ETHAN GOFFMAN
Downtown
Silver Spring is buzzing with creative destruction and regenerative
construction. In every nook and cranny, the old is being torn
down or renovated, while shiny new buildings rise above the
pockmarked landscape. The Discovery Building is opening, joining
a new Whole Foods Market and other shopping facilities. The
grand opening of the American Film Institute’s Silver
Theatre will feature an appearance by Clint Eastwood. The
historic B & O Railroad station has just reopened, while
a new district courthouse and a communications technology
center are in the works. Other projects planned or under construction
will please art and book lovers: a Cultural Performance Center
for Montgomery College, a new library and a Borders.
One
of the premier projects of Silver Spring revitalization is
the new Civics Center. Silver Spring resident Richard Jaeggi
explains the Civics Center as "the caboose"–the
grand finale. The center is being planned through a method
never used before in Montgomery County: a design competition.
The
competition prospectus describes the goal for the center as
"to make the Silver Spring Town Square a place of exceptional
quality...worthy of national and international acclaim."
According to Gary Stith, director of the Silver Spring Regional
Services Center, this "different kind of process"
was chosen to "attract more creativity" to the design
process.
Located
on Ellsworth Drive off Fenton Street, at the site of the old
Silver Spring Armory, the Civic Center will include a Veterans
Plaza and an ice rink. Stith explains that it will be "dominated
by a great hall" of 6,000 square feet, capable of being
partitioned into three sections. Other meeting rooms are also
planned, to be used for lectures, meetings, trade shows, arts
festivals, and other purposes. At least one room will include
a hardwood floor intended for classes in dance and yoga. Maximum
flexibility is a design mandate.
Although
new to Montgomery County, building design contests have occurred
locally before, such as with the Performing Arts Center at
the University of Maryland. That project was managed by architecture
professor Roger Lewis, who is now the professional consultant
for the Silver Spring project.
Of
the 28 design teams participating in the initial stages of
the Silver Spring contest, seven were interviewed and five
were chosen to submit final designs. Experience and design
approach were the main criteria of the narrowing process;
the design teams chosen display flexibility and an interest
in community involvement. A mixture of teams was selected,
including an international firm based in Boston, as well as
two corporate and two smaller, local teams.
The
five finalists will be paid $25,000 each for their participation
and their initial plans. On
May
17, the finalists will compete for the big prize, unveiling
their blueprints at a public presentation. Jaeggi explains
that the process is open enough to allow citizen participation.
The results will be judged by a team of architects, augmented
by three representatives from the community, two from the
county, and one from local developers. If all goes well the
committee, and the community, will be presented with the blessing
of a difficult choice, and the competition process will have
proved its worth.
The
design process is intended to produce an elite, innovative
project, a civics center that mixes the local with the international,
an integral part of a world class Silver Spring adjacent to
the nation’s capital. Yet we are living in a strange
time for such extensive revitalization, a time of war and
economic uncertainty. How will these troubles affect the completion
of plans conceived under far more optimistic circumstances?
According to Stith, "the financing is in place,"
so that completion of planned projects is almost assured.
The Civic Center will likely be the cutting edge in a glittering
downtown area. Time will tell if circumstances, in conjunction
with the people of Silver Spring, can fill these buildings
with art and commerce and community life, with an inner richness
worthy of the revitalized exterior.
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