White Flint Placemaking

Montgomery Planning led a collaborative placemaking initiative in 2018 to reimagine part of the Randolph Hills Shopping Center in White Flint as a dynamic public space and park. The six-month collaboration with residents, local businesses, civic associations and non-profit organizations culminated in the White Flint Placemaking Festival. This public event was held on October 13 and 14, 2018 and drew more than 1,000 people to the county’s first pop-up park, which continues to serve the surrounding community.

By the Numbers

One dozen community organizers from the Randolph Hills Civic Association and more than 50 volunteers from the Randolph Hills neighborhood spent hundreds of hours:

• Painting a 200-foot-long mural.
• Building 90 feet of tables, dozens of chairs and tables, four swings, two fire pits.
• Stringing 350 feet of lights.
• Spreading out three truckloads of mulch to make safe surfaces for kids to play.
• Moving 30 trees and 50 potted plants to make a garden out of a patch of grass.
• Applying 67 gallons of surface paint to make a basketball court and a bike track.

During the event, 11 local bands, 14 small businesses and 13 fitness and cultural programming partners provided more than 12 hours of activities.

People-Centered Planning

The White Flint Placemaking project exemplifies a people-centered approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. Preparation for the placemaking festival took about six months of weekly calls with residents, on-the-ground conversations and more than 100 survey responses.

This project was undertaken to:

• Give the community an opportunity to realize its collective vision for the neighborhood.
• Demonstrate to the property owners and county agencies how recommendations in the White Flint 2 Sector Plan, approved by the Montgomery County Council in December 2017, can be implemented in the short-term before long-term investment is dedicated.
• Engage local businesses, schools and community members in a dialogue about the role of public spaces within their community.
• Use temporary placemaking as a tool to gather data and help inform permanent designs for successful public spaces in the White Flint 2 Sector Plan area.
• Make a positive impact on the community with a public space that is still being used for community events and was underutilized before the placemaking festival.

Partners

Montgomery Planning organized the White Flint Placemaking Festival in partnership with Montgomery Parks, Montgomery County Department of Transportation, Dallas-based Better Block Foundation, Randolph Civic Association of North Bethesda and AR Kronstadt Realty Investors of Rockville.

Schedule