Montgomery County planners want to make sure everyone benefits from the Purple Line

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This blog post is also published as a Greater Greater Washington guest column.

As Montgomery County eagerly awaits next year’s anticipated opening of the Purple Line, we know few communities stand to gain as much from the massive light-rail investment as those located south of the Capital Beltway between Sligo Creek and the Prince George’s County line.

That area will have three Purple Line stations: Manchester Place, Long Branch, and Piney Branch Road. At the same time, the county has plans to add fast, frequent bus service, known as bus rapid transit (BRT), to University Boulevard and New Hampshire Avenue, complementing today’s BRT line on Colesville Road.

When built, many of the area’s 37,000 residents will live within … Continue reading

Greening the gaps: How local students are transforming small spaces into community parks

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Imagine, for a moment, that you are in your favorite outdoor place. What things would you expect to see there? Children playing soccer? Tall trees and flowering shrubs? Maybe there is a pond or stream. This place deserves your attention and care.

People love parks. Not only do they provide the benefits of being outdoors, such as improved mental health outcomes, but parks provide a space to gather socially. Think of the very name of this blog, The Third Place – the social realm separate from home and the workplace. “Pocket parks” are one way to ensure equitable access to greenspace, and Montgomery Planning’s Reforest Montgomery program is helping one ambitious and environmentally minded high school student make his … Continue reading

The “Great Housing Reversal” and the American Dream: What comes next?

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An insightful new lens for understanding the country’s housing challenges comes from “The Great Housing Reversal and the New American Dream,” a compelling book by Mike Hathorne. Hathorne argues that the United States is not experiencing a temporary housing cycle but a lasting structural reversal. For decades, our housing system was built around a single dominant household type: married couples with children buying a detached home on a large lot in the suburbs. That model shaped zoning, financing, and the very idea of the American Dream.

Hathorne suggests that younger generations are prioritizing connection, belonging, and proximity over large houses and big yards. They want to live near people, places, and experiences. Empty nesters increasingly want to downsize into … Continue reading

A Future Built in Wood: Unlocking the Potential of Mass Timber in Montgomery County

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Perhaps because I am an architect, I love looking at landscapes, and I love looking at the grain detail of large wood beams, siding and furniture within a building. The natural flow of the grain can be mesmerizing and just looking at and touching wood, is calming.

Throughout history, human societies have used wood to construct structures ranging from modest dwellings to highly sophisticated religious and civic buildings. When wood is used within buildings, it nurtures a relationship between the tenants who use a space, and nature which created the wood. This relationship is called biophilic design, and with the use of wood in the structure of buildings, this relationship not only enhances our health and wellbeing, but the … Continue reading

How Montgomery Planning Board Commissioner Shawn Bartley came to “champion” single-family homes

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By Montgomery Planning staff

Montgomery Planning is celebrating Black History Month by sharing the voices, journeys, and impact of Montgomery Planning’s Black leaders.

Shawn Bartley remembers how safe he felt growing up in his family’s house in Moreno Valley, Calif., especially the small but private yard where an introverted 8-year-old like him could play in peace and quiet.

His family of four had been so excited to move there that they’d often drive out to the construction site to photograph their new home as it took shape. The house was small, about 1,200 square feet. But it would allow them to escape a gang-ridden area of nearby East Riverside. An apartment complex there had been what his family … Continue reading

Montgomery Planning Board Chair Artie Harris grew up learning to give back

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By Montgomery Planning staff

Montgomery Planning is celebrating Black History Month by sharing the voices, journeys, and impact of Montgomery Planning’s Black leaders.

Artie Harris worries that Montgomery County’s skyrocketing home prices will leave too many residents, including his two adult daughters, unable to afford a home in a neighborhood like the one where they grew up.

It’s one reason why helping the county get “unstuck” from its affordable housing crisis feels personal–and remains Harris’ top priority as chair of the Montgomery County Planning Board.

As Harris helps chart Montgomery’s future, he wants the county to offer more reasonably priced homes in all sizes, from large apartments for growing families to starter homes for young buyers and smaller … Continue reading

Reimagining Public Space: A Merit Award for Placemaking on Bethesda Avenue

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This blog is part of a series that highlights the winners of the 2025 Design Excellence Awards.

Placemaking is the act of improving a common space to make it welcoming and attractive, so it better serves the needs of the people who use it. It is both a process and an outcome. As a process, it is a collaborative effort to plan, design, and manage public spaces in ways that enhance community health, happiness, and well-being. It relies on active participation from community members to create a shared vision: transforming ordinary spaces into vibrant destinations that strengthen connections between people and their environment.

As an outcome, placemaking results in spaces that foster social interaction, environmental stewardship, economic vitality, and health. … Continue reading

Design Excellence in Bethesda: How The Sophia elevates urban living

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This blog is part of a series that highlights the winners of the 2025 Design Excellence Awards.

Architecture demands an expression in response to different settings.  It is based on an evolving common understanding of the structure of places, subject to reinterpretation by each architect. Architects should value what exists through sensitive and thoughtful designs that are generative and timeless so that all buildings become a point of departure within their urban context for subsequent building designs.

Architectural style should emerge from the adaptation, evolution, and transformation of buildings and landscapes within their regional context. From this foundation, an appropriate design language for a building can be determined. For a residential building, a modern aesthetic can coexist with comfort and elegance … Continue reading

A new standard: Celebrating Strathmore Square’s visionary design

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This blog is part of a series that highlights the winners of the 2025 Design Excellence Awards.

Thoughtful and purposeful design and architecture shape how we live, work, and connect. It influences our sense of belonging within a community and promotes better health, and environmental resiliency by creating neighborhoods and centers that are not only functional but inspiring for generations to come.

All communities strive to create a “sense of place.” When landscape and architectural designs are done right, great places are achieved. Through our design excellence awards, we want to recognize and promote those projects and their teams that make a difference. That’s why the Design Excellence Award program was created in 2015. Since then, we have brought … Continue reading

Planning starts with people: Inside Montgomery County’s new academy for civic engagement

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University of Maryland student Ricardo Hernandez wonders how he’ll afford to continue living in Montgomery County when he moves out of his parents’ home. Community organizer Sergine Yango is concerned about clean air. Restaurant owner Radwan Chowdhury has wondered how local governments decide to issue new construction permits.

They and 45 other Montgomery residents were among the first graduates of our new Community Planning Academy, a free online course that explains the ins and outs of the planning process. The 10 interactive and self-paced lessons, each 30 to 45 minutes long, cover everything from zoning basics to the development review process to how to weigh in on your community’s Master Plan.

Starting December 1, the virtual academy will open … Continue reading