2022 Kea Professor Corie Sharples on Designing Skylines, Re-Thinking Construction and Revisiting Old Haunts
Of all the iconic places conceived by SHoP Architects along New York City’s skyline, the one that gives Founding Principal Corie Sharples ‘87 the most satisfaction is the place she once vowed never to return: South Street Seaport’s Pier 17, a slice of Manhattan’s East River Waterfront that once housed a windowless marketplace of souvenir shops and chain restaurants.
National Conference on Small Business Anti-Displacement Finds Strength in Numbers
When James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Grace Young was asked to reflect on the best meal she ate last week, her mind gravitated to Hop Lee, a longstanding Cantonese restaurant in the heart of New York’s Chinatown. On any given weekday, its pastel dining room bustles with teachers, postal workers and residents who commune over plates of stir-fry and noodles.“It’s a feeling of warmth to just be there; I call it the ‘Cheers’ of Chinese restaurants,” she said. “And the food is wonderful.”
UMD-Led Report Pushes Strategies for Affordable Housing, Trail Access Along Purple Line Corridor
New affordable housing near transit stops, improved pedestrian safety and small business preservation along the coming Purple Line are needed to protect and strengthen the surrounding communities, according to a new report released Wednesday to federal, state and local stakeholders by the Purple Line Corridor Coalition (PLCC) and the University of Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth.
A Future Worth Planning: Joint Studio Identifies Strategies for Ensuring a Just, Sustainable Montgomery County Community
One of the most challenging roles an urban planner must play is that of a soothsayer: prognosticating the future of a community in the face of almost impossibly unpredictable forces like climate change, the economy or a pandemic. But a fall studio by urban planning and historic preservation students at the University of Maryland attempted to do just that for one suburb in Montgomery County, Maryland, in advance of its revamped master plan, visualizing what life in Fairland/Briggs Chaney would look like for residents under three alternative futures.
Planning Students, PLCC Earn Accolades at Maryland Sustainable Growth Awards
A Fall 2021 urban planning studio that used scenario planning to chart a thriving, sustainable future for one Montgomery County community and a UMD-led initiative to bring sustainable, equitable growth along the Purple Line light rail corridor have been honored by the Maryland Department of Planning in this year’s Sustainable Growth Awards.
$1.5M Federal Grant to Fund Work to Prioritize Equity on Purple Line Corridor
The Federal Transit Administration has announced a $1.5 million grant to help the University of Maryland’s Purple Line Corridor Coalition (PLCC) develop a plan to add affordable housing, preserve small businesses and improve access for walkers and cyclists in neighborhoods at risk for gentrification and displacement along the coming light-rail route.
Your Guide to a Great Afternoon at The Wharf—From Two Alums Who Helped Develop It
Few things are as sumptuous as cozying up in a waterfront Adirondack chair with a cup of hot coffee and taking in the view. That this serene scene is within walking distance of the urban bustle of the nation’s capital is just one reason the Wharf is suddenly must-see D.C.—and one of the many design touches that University of Maryland architecture alums Martiena Schneller ‘08 and Matthew Steenhoek ‘05 hope bring people to the city’s vibrant new neighborhood.
Bringing Justice—and a New Chapter—to a College Park Community
The intersection of Rhode Island Avenue, Lakeland Road and Navahoe Street in the College Park neighborhood of Lakeland holds two pasts: One is of streetcars and Saturday night socials, corner stores and community parades; the other, of bulldozers, displacement and the erasure of a once-vibrant community.
Pepperdine University Takes First Place At Seventh Annual Colvin Case Study Challenge
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Carrie Chard, Colvin Institute / cchard@umd.eduWednesday, December 15, 2022
UMD Initiative to Help Businesses of Color Survive—and Thrive—Despite Neighborhood Change
Written by Willow Lung-AmamThe view from Nubian Hueman, a clothing and home décor boutique in Washington, D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood, has shifted. Over the past five years, owner Anika Hobbs has seen more cranes and construction crews, as well as a change in the people that walk past her storefront: Once mostly Black, they are now more frequently white. “Right now, Anacostia is under the threat of major gentrification,” she said. “We cater to people of color, so what is that going to look like when the neighborhood changes?”