This week marked a watershed moment for those pushing for a fresh look to College Park’s downtown area. The city broke ground on a brand new parking garage with retail space on Thursday, while Foulger-Pratt Argo displayed its final renderings of the East Campus development. The timing of the two projects, coinciding with the near-constant flow of freshmen arriving on the campus for orientation, emphasizes the efforts of the university and students to mold College Park into a true college town.
And it’s about time.
Known for the past decade more for its riots than for any ritzy attractions, College Park must continue its facelift if the university hopes to enter the upper echelons of public institutions of higher education. With a scant strip of fast food joints, rickety bars and little to offer in the way of true retail space, College Park is in desperate need of the makeover this week’s developments promise.
But the city and university cannot stop there. In The Diamondback’s story today about Foulger-Pratt Argo’s designs, residents and students alike criticized the renderings for being “bleak” and lacking a “college feel.”
For the city and the university, this categorization must be treated as completely unacceptable. The East Campus project represents a seminal moment in College Park history. With the new retail space, apartments, music hall and movie theater, the face of the city will completely change. Residents and students alike will benefit as the new changes will serve to redefine the city in the same way Silver Spring underwent a reputation change following the completion of that city’s new downtown.
At the same time, the new development marks a significant step for the university, as the project should help the school attract top graduate students and professors by making College Park not just more livable, but a hotspot in the region. The current lack of attractive and affordable graduate housing, coupled with an atmosphere Washington City Paper reporter David Morton described as having “the locational charm of a highway rest stop,” hamstrings the university’s efforts to market itself as a true public Ivy.
While the developments of the past week represent small steps in this larger struggle, students and residents must not accept a “bleak” or “cookie-cutter” design. The changes to the city provide too big an opportunity for College Park to settle for anything less than perfection.
