taking a break

and a deep breath. Breathe in . . .

now slowly breathe out. Do it again.

Repeat a few thousand times and we'll see you next week.

top ten favorite photos in east county (yours and mine)

Flickr, the site where I keep most of the photos for JUTP, has a list of my most popular photos, arranged by the number of views. Whenever I look at it, I'm always surprised at the results. For instance, the most popular photo of all time is one of this sign for Blake High School's production of High School Musical, taken three years ago by my friend Gili while I was driving. (I'm still not sure why my camera was on its "blue" setting.)

Second place went to my alterations to a map of racial integration in Montgomery County, and the infamous "Sushi Girl" who appeared at Georgian Towers' rooftop party two years ago came in third. Surprisingly, seven of the top twenty images are either maps or plans, and nine are images I didn't make myself.

Nonetheless, the list of YOUR favorites doesn't line up with the list of MY top ten photos that I've taken in East County for JUTP. Here they are, in reverse order:

#10 Chick-Fil-A Tent City



It's not every day Chick-Fil-A comes to town, and when ours opened on Tech Road, fans of the fast-food joint came from all over the country to wait in the blazing July heat for a chance at being first in the door.

#9 Allen Theatre Burns Down



The 50's-era Allen Theatre in Takoma Park was destroyed in a spectacular fire during a snowstorm in December 2009. I was amazed that, even though the building and everything inside was gone, the "The New Ave" banners hung on the outside - for the new marketing campaign along New Hampshire Avenue - were miraculously intact.

#8 K-Town


I was driving by K-Town, the makeshift skate park in Kensington a little before sunset two summers ago and I found this scene inspiring. I don't know why. I just like that the kid is basically in silhouette but everything else is visible.

#7 The Water Tower House


What's not to love about a house with its own water supply? One of six houses being built at the end of a cul-de-sac in Montgomery Hills, the Water Tower House shows how difficult infill development can be while letting us all enjoy a good laugh in the process.

#6 Wheaton Safeway


There's nothing more gloomy than an abandoned building, especially when it's a suburban supermarket whose sole purpose is to make visitors feel happy and want to buy things. I spent an afternoon photographing the shuttered Wheaton Safeway which will eventually give way to a new apartment building.

#5 A Porch in Silver Spring


When he saw this picture I took in the Courts of Woodside, awesome photographer/friend of JUTP Chip Py said, "Did you take this? It's pretty good." There is no higher honor. The concrete foundations in the middleground are now houses, meaning that this photo couldn't be replicated today.

#4 Tai Lam Memorial


Sometimes, the most powerful moments come unexpectedly. For people visiting Ellsworth Drive in the fall of 2008, it was this memorial for Tai Lam, a local teenager who was shot going home from downtown Silver Spring on a Ride-On bus. I nearly broke down while taking these photos - not just because of how sad the display is, but because of everyone else's reactions.

#3 Kid Falls Off Board, Everyone Laughs


Back from when it was legal to skate in downtown Silver Spring. The best parts of urban places is the spontaneity and the way multiple things can happen at once in the same space. This single block of Ellsworth Drive is at once a skate session and a show; on the sidewalks around them, people are grabbing dinner, going to a movie, waiting for a bus. I wish Montgomery County had the balls to let people be rather than trying to stop things like this from happening.

#2 World Cup Fever on Ellsworth Drive



Playing soccer in downtown Silver Spring is, thankfully, still legal. I always show this picture to anyone who complains that DTSS has become "generic."

#1 (tie) "The Turf" (above) and Veterans Plaza (below)






For six years, the corner of Ellsworth and Fenton has been where East County goes to hang out, whether as Veterans Plaza or its predecessor, "the Turf." The roll of plastic grass that had landscape architects fearing for their jobs is a memory, but it looks like people are still coming back, even if they can't run around barefoot.

When asked in my Urban Design Case Studies class last week what a significant place in my life was, I had to say Ellsworth Drive. Even though it's still very new and by no means a masterpiece, it's probably had the most influence on me, hence why it appears so many times in the countdown. It's weird: as I look at many of these photos, I can see how my beliefs about people and places and planning came to be. That's not to say that the places I'd design would all look like Ellsworth Drive. But I'd say that I learned a lot about how cities work while people-watching outside the Majestic on a Friday night.

my pecha kucha: where we've been, where we're going

Last fall, I participated in the Planning Department's Pecha Kucha contest, in which you have to give a quick presentation on any topic (in this case, the future of Montgomery County) in twenty slides with twenty seconds for each slide. I was first to present and a little flustered after rushing to finish my presentation that morning AND driving straight from Philadelphia to Silver Spring to give it. I was rushed and out of breath and not as well-spoken as I thought I could be, but I figured it might be worthwhile to share it with y'all, a few months after the fact.

The theme of my pecha kucha (it's Japanese and pronounced peh-CHAK-cha) was "Montgomery County: Where We've Been, Where We're Going." I used historic photos from Shorpy, mixed with new photos I've taken, to show how Montgomery County has changed over the past fifty years and how it'll change in the future. Most notable among those changes is the county's shift from being predominantly-white and rural (and later a bedroom suburb) to becoming majority-minority (the school system already is) and a mix of urban, suburban and rural place. There are many measures of diversity in Montgomery County, and I wanted to explore all of them.

To enjoy my presentation without seeing me make a fool of myself, check out this slideshow I made, complete with comments. (You'll have to click "Show Info" at the top right to see them.)




Of course, the winner of the Pecha Kucha contest was Planning Department intern and friend of JUTP Alex Hutchinson, who's guest-blogged here a couple of times now. You can see a video of his talk, and those of all of the other participants (all of whom, I later discovered, worked for the Planning Department) right here.

we're famous (in two ways!)

Sort of. On their new website for the nascent D.C. streetcar, the District Department of Transportation put up this photo of visitors to a streetcar they displayed at the Old Convention Center during their "Streetcar Showcase" last spring. Standing in the middle of the car are my friends/former classmates at the U-Md. School of Architecture Tony and Sandy (who's also my current roommate here in Philadelphia) and myself. You might have met Tony and Sandy at the Fenton Street Market charrette in May, where they were gracious enough to lend their time and ears to the community.

We were down at the Streetcar Showcase not only to look at an actual, non-Lego trolley, but also to do research for our entry in AARP and the American Institute of Architectural Students' yearly Livable Communities Design Competition, in which I'm proud to announce we won second place for the second year in a row. (We actually found out in October, but our friends at AIAS didn't announce it until very recently and, alas, we have all already spent our prize money on rent.)

Our proposal (PDF!) was to turn the urban renewal-era Hechinger Mall in Northeast D.C. (at right) into a mix of housing, shops and community uses, including a health center, a renovated church, and a 10-acre park. Outside the mall, they're already laying tracks for one of the city's first new streetcar lines, which will start running along H Street between Union Station and Oklahoma Avenue in just over a year. We felt this was a great place to put things we saw a strong need for in the neighborhood, from new housing to improved shopping to a big public square, something we need to see more of in the D.C. area.

You can see our entry, along with the others, at the competition website.