Design charrette helps Rockville community envision a great place
Rockville’s Pike: Envision a Great Place is a planning initiative designed to involve members of the Rockville, Maryland community in developing a vision for the future of Rockville Pike – a suburban corridor that serves a dual role as both a high-traffic thoroughfare and a local and regional retail destination. Currently, the Pike is largely characterized by low-density, car-oriented, single-use development. With the help of ACP, the Rockville community is engaging in an effort to develop a new plan for the Pike – one that will reframe it as a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use environment featuring a green, attractive public realm – while still accommodating high traffic demands and retaining its economic success.
The Rockville's Pike Community Design Charrette took place from Saturday, May 31 – Tuesday, June 3, 2008, and attracted the participation of nearly 150 individuals from in and around the Rockville community. The charrette was tailored to provide the widest range of opportunities for public input over a short period of time. It kicked off with a Public Design Workshop on Saturday morning, in which participants engaged in facilitated small group mapping exercises to collaborate on a series of design recommendations for the Pike. The charrette also featured a Design Studio that was open to the public every day, an Open House on Monday night, and a final presentation of the charrette results on Tuesday night.
The charrette built upon months of earlier public engagement (including a December Kick-off Meeting, a February Stakeholder Workshop, and two Reports to the Community), which provided a solid foundation of technical analysis as well as publicly endorsed development principles for the Pike. The charrette gave community members the chance to build on this foundation, and contribute to the creation of concrete design solutions.
Key ideas to emerge from the charrette include: reframing the Pike as a green, multi-modal boulevard; expanding the street grid to improve network connectivity and walkability; promoting a mix of uses; intensifying development, particularly near the Metro station; reducing surface parking; and regulating to achieve more attractive and environmentally sustainable development along the Pike. Moving forward, the work accomplished at the Rockville’s Pike Community Design Charrette will be further refined and articulated as a draft plan for the Pike.
