Community invited by Montgomery Planning to pedal around mid-century neighborhoods and landmarks
SILVER SPRING, MD – The Montgomery County Planning Department, part of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, is hosting a bike tour of mid-century modern architecture. The route will follow the Rock Creek Park trail through entire subdivisions of contemporary homes designed in the 1950s.
The tour is sponsored by the Planning Department’s Historic Preservation Office and the Potomac Valley chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Register for the Montgomery Modern Bike Tour.
The morning tour visits houses in neighborhoods of Hammond Hill and Hammond Wood, and leads through Rock Creek Woods, all designed by architect Charles Goodman, FAIA. Goodman, who designed the Hollin Hills subdivision in Alexandria, was Washington’s foremost modernist architect working in single-family housing in the 1950s.
Bikers will have a box lunch at the North Chevy Chase Christian Church, followed by a tour of this modernist gem by Bethesda architect John Samperton, AIA, known for his design of Gallaudet College and Catholic University buildings. Also on the tour is Samperton’s pristine North Chevy Chase Pool Bathhouse.
Details:
Montgomery Modern Bike Tour
sponsored by the Montgomery County Planning Department’s Historic Preservation Office and the Potomac Valley chapter of AIA
October 11, 10:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Tour mid-century neighborhoods in Montgomery County on two wheels: $30 for the public ($20 for AIA and Docomomo members) and includes lunch and interior visits.
Learn more about the Montgomery Modern Bike Tour
The purpose of the tour is to heighten awareness of mid-century modern design in Montgomery County and the preservation challenges now facing owners of buildings dating from the post-World War II decades. The works of two leading architects and their approaches to 1950s modernism will be discussed as well as ways of renovating and expanding mid-century designs now considered historic.
The event is part of the Historic Preservation Office’s Montgomery Modern initiative to educate the public about the architectural heritage of Montgomery County. This preservation program includes the agency’s research and writing of a new book, Montgomery Modern, on the wealth of mid-century modern architecture in the county. The book is scheduled for publication in fall 2015. Learn more about the Historic Preservation Office’s Montgomery Modern initiative.
The bike tour is part of the Docomomo Tour Day event sponsored by Docomomo-DC. This non-profit is dedicated to the documentation and conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the modern movement (Docomomo) and is part of an international organization founded in 1988 by two Dutch architects.
Interested tour participants are required to bring their own bicycles and wear helmets. The tour will start at the Newport Middle School, 11311 Newport Mill Road, Kensington, Maryland 20895.
Bikers must be willing to pedal at a slow to moderate pace, and travel up and down hilly streets with some traffic possible during the 13.5-mile tour, which includes the 6 mile ride from the end of the tour back to the starting point.