Master-Planned Towns, Age 50, Innovative Still

Byline: Michele Lerner, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The 1960s was a trendsetting decade that revolutionized the culture and society of the United States in a variety of ways.

In the D.C. area, the late 1960s and early 1970s brought to fruition three master-planned communities that introduced ideas about development that continue to influence planners: Columbia in Howard County, Reston in Fairfax County and St. Charles in Charles County.

All three of these communities were designed around the same essential principle: that you could create a true community from scratch, said Jay Parker, principal of Parker-Rodriguez in Alexandria and one of the original planners of St. Charles. In each case, the idea was that all the major components of an attractive town would be present and planned so that they worked together in a coherent way. Planning the pace of growth meant that the negatives wouldn't occur.

Terms such as smart growth, mixed-use development and …

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: Master-Planned Towns, Age 50, Innovative Still. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: The Washington Times (Washington, DC). Publication date: December 14, 2012. Page number: D24. © 2009 The Washington Times LLC. COPYRIGHT 2012 Gale Group.

This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.