Symphonywoods

“Symphony Woods” is at risk of disappearing. Not the literal Symphony Woods, the trees on the Columbia Association property surrounding Merriweather Post Pavilion—as I’ve written before, the Inner Arbor plan proposed for that property would result in the removal of very few trees, fewer even than the previous Cy Paumier plan that’s been touted by some as more true to Jim Rouse’s vision. Rather what’s at risk of disappearing is a certain idea about what “Symphony Woods” actually is, and I think understanding better what that means is key to understanding the ongoing resistance to the Inner Arbor plan and related developments concerning CA and downtown Columbia. This post is a first attempt at such an understanding. ...

I previously discussed parking at Merriweather Post Pavilion. How does Merriweather fare compared to other venues? Do they offer any glimpses of Merriweather’s future with respect to parking? For this post I picked three different venues, each with a Merriweather connection and all of them together showing a wide range of venue parking situations. Jiffy Lube Live and surroundings, Bristow VA. The circles show areas within a quarter mile and half mile of the venue. Click for high-resolution version. ...

The future of Symphony Woods and the Inner Arbor plan is tied up with the future of Merriweather Post Pavilion. So what of Merriweather’s future? The past weeks have seen a brewing battle over Merriweather between the Howard County government (more specifically, County Executive Ken Ulman) and the Howard Hughes Corporation. For the complete rundown see Luke Lavoie’s ongoing coverage in the Baltimore Sun, as Ulman first verbally admonished Howard Hughes over the pace of renovations to Merriweather, then proposed legislation expediting transfer of Merriweather to the nonprofit Downtown Columbia Arts and Culture Commission (a move that was envisioned in the original Downtown Columbia plan [PDF]). In response, according to an article by Kevin Litten in the Baltimore Business Journal, John DeWolf of Howard Hughes claimed Ulman had “blindsided” them, and floated the idea of Howard Hughes pulling out of Columbia entirely. ...

This week Frank Gehry weighed in on the Inner Arbor plans, plans that (in Gehry’s words) “deeply disturb me.” One could say a lot about this: About Gehry’s motivations and who might have influenced him to speak out (see Julia McCready), whether today’s Columbia is as welcoming to talented young architects as the Columbia of the 60s and 70s (see Tom Coale), whether these exercises in WWJRD (“What would Jim Rouse do”) are useful or not (see Jesse Newburn in her comments on Gehry’s letter), and how this might connect with the desire by members of the CA board to regain influence over the Inner Arbor Trust (see Bill “Marshmallow Man” Woodcock). ...

I was fortunate last night to be able to attend the Howard County Design Advisory Panel meeting to review the Inner Arbor plan. It was a very interesting and informative meeting, and I hope to be able to blog about it in much more details—especially since it answered many of the remaining questions I had about various elements of the plan. For now though I’ll simply note that the panel unanimously approved the plan as submitted. The major substantive concern raised was whether the paths in the central part of the park were quite wide enough to handle the anticipated pedestrian traffic, especially during Wine in the Woods and major events at Merriweather Post Pavilion. The panel asked the design team to take a second look at that. ...