Architecture

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

Deciding the year’s most excellent designs

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All of us at Montgomery Planning are excited to once again celebrate the best architecture, landscape, and/or urban designs in Montgomery County this fall. The 2025 Design Excellence Awards presentation on Thursday, October 16, 2025, will be held in conjunction with the AIA Potomac Chapter’s Celebrate Design event in Bethesda at the Marriott International Hotels Headquarters (a 2023 Design Excellence Merit winner).

One award will be the newly named Gwen Marcus Wright Design Excellence Award in Architectural, Urban Design, and Landscape design. The second award, Exceptional Housing, will honor multi-family residential projects built in the county over the past ten years. Award submissions are being accepted through Monday evening, July 21, 2025.

For each Design Excellence Awards celebration, Montgomery … Continue reading

Design excellence helps Montgomery County thrive

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The physical design of our neighborhoods and centers within Montgomery County will help guide the quality and shared use of our communities for generations.  When done right, architecture and landscape define these places in a way that fosters their use, their beauty, and their overall prosperity. When incorrectly done, formless architecture that caters to the automobile and is self-referential can be socially isolating and environmentally and economically draining to the entire county.

One of the primary tenants of the new Thrive Montgomery 2050 General Plan is the importance of arts, culture, and design within Complete Communities that support all facets of our daily lives. It is through design that the best aspects of our society and the most positive … Continue reading

Setting the standard for Montgomery County’s sustainable development with the new M-NCPPC Wheaton Headquarters

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On February 17, 2021, Maryland National Capital Parks and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) received word that the new 14-story Wheaton Headquarters building at 2425 Reedie Drive had officially obtained a LEED Platinum certification, the highest environmental status available from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). It is the first LEED Platinum government office building in the state of Maryland and will set a very high bar for sustainable development and stewardship throughout Montgomery County.

This building is a manifestation of Montgomery Planning’s goal of promoting design excellence and transit-oriented development with the most efficient and well-designed mixed-use buildings. We did not want “just a glass office building” but one reflective of our goals of inclusive public planning, nature, and parks … Continue reading

Montgomery County Needs ‘Cookie Cutter’ Urban Design to ‘bake’ a Better Future

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By Todd Fawley-King and Atul Sharma

Introduction

You’ve probably heard someone criticize a neighborhood or shopping area as “cookie cutter.” This description, often used to identify construction that has standardized or repetitive features, usually implies the buildings lack character and will diminish their surroundings. There is a lot to like about “cookie-cutter” construction; sameness can be enriching, and this type of design can help build great places quickly and affordably.

Good cookie-cutter design is ingrained in the urban fabric of America, enabling the rapid settlement and expansion of the United States. In New England the repeated “cookie” is the 6-by-6 mile square township administered by a central village. These townships were organized around the quintessential church, meeting house, and … Continue reading

From Corporate Offices to Centers of Learning

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Changes in work patterns and population growth are leading to new types of schools

Walking past 8000 Jones Branch Drive in Tysons Corner, it is easy to assume that offices occupy this regular, three-story building. Entering its light filled atrium, however, does not reveal a corporate lobby or water cooler talk, but a gathering space where hundreds of chattering students dart between classes and engage in extracurricular activities. Welcome to Basis Independent School, a new type of center for learning.

Basis Independent is a private K-12 school that sits within the 120,000 square feet of this former Tysons Corner office building. This renovation project was designed by the DC architecture firm Perkins Eastman with Gilbane as the design-build partner. … Continue reading

Celebrate Design Excellence in Montgomery County

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Planning Department’s annual awards will be announced on October 19

The Montgomery County Planning Department is finalizing preparations for its third annual Design Excellence Award celebration on October 19, 2017 at the Silver Spring Civic Building. This event will be held from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. in conjunction with the American Institute of Architects Potomac Valley Chapter’s design awards program.

This year, the Planning Department will recognize two top awards, one for excellence in architecture and urban design, and a second for great spaces and landscapes. More than 25 exceptional works of architecture, landscape architecture and urban design completed in Montgomery County over the past decade have been submitted for review in September 2017 by another outstanding independent jury … Continue reading

The Future of Aging Office Buildings

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Transit-served locations, less parking and affordability in urban centers are behind the successful recycling of offices into residences and other uses

Walking past the Octave 1320 on Fenwick Lane in Downtown Silver Spring, it is hard to imagine that not too long ago, this glimmering, 102- unit condominium housed vacant offices and a greasy spoon eatery in its basement. The transformation of the 10-story building, developed by Promark Real Estate Services of Rockville and designed by Washington, DC-based BKV Group, is impressive and likely to become the norm rather than the exception in Montgomery County’s urban centers. Several factors are influencing such conversions of aging office structures to other uses:

Our downtowns are mostly built up with high density … Continue reading

Designed for excellence

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Winning county projects set high standards for developers to follow

The dynamic image of the Purple Line speeding through the Silver Spring Library site convinced an independent jury to choose that building for the Montgomery County Planning Department’s 2016 Design Excellence Award. “The design makes a statement about the importance of public transportation. It’s a great gift to the community,” said jury chair Yolanda Cole during the awards ceremony on October 20.

This year’s Celebrate Design event, co-sponsored with the Potomac Valley AIA, was held at the Silver Spring Civic Building, just down the street from the new library with its ground-level space reserved for the future light rail station. The first part of the evening program showcased … Continue reading