A Detailed Look at a Model TOD

Rockville Town Square in Rockville, Maryland is a 12.5 acre mixed-use development that, despite being built in 2007 right as the housing crisis happened, is a raging success. Simmons Buntin looks at what developers did right.

1 minute read

March 28, 2011, 6:00 AM PDT

By Tim Halbur


Rockville Town Square replaced a failed mall with a transit-oriented development that features "a broad town plaza, state-of-the-art library and arts and business innovation center, and pedestrian-oriented shops and restaurants-with condominiums and apartments above."

An extensive public process paved the way for the development, with a new master plan for downtown completed in 2001. The project was envisioned as a cooperation between public and private entities to create a downtown that Rockville never had. It centers around a brand-new public plaza, which Buntin describes as "...designed to encourage seating and gatherings, formal and otherwise, and like other successful New Urban developments, fosters chance encounters."

Sunday, March 27, 2011 in Terrain.org

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