We work on the transportation aspects of a lot of cool projects, some of which don’t always see the light of day. So we were pleased when the Howard County Planning Board recently approved the construction of the New Cultural Center in downtown Columbia, Maryland.
It will be the county’s first cultural arts center and, as the Baltimore Sun reported over a year ago, will be “a $130 million facility that integrates art organizations under one roof, caters affordable housing to artists and creates a year-round laboratory for artists and art lovers alike.”
The beautifully designed New Cultural Center will be the home of a relocated Toby’s Dinner Theatre (a Columbia icon for over 38 years), a visual arts center, a performing arts space, black box theaters, artists-in-residence studios and a café. 192 residential units will sit above the arts uses, with a third-level residential amenity program featuring rooftop courtyards that overlook Symphony Woods and Merriweather Post Pavilion. All this will conceal a 700-space parking garage.
Managing Traffic in Columbia, MD: Circulation, Access, and Transit
We worked with the development team to design the traffic circulation plan, drop-off/pick-up areas, and site access. We also prepared the traffic study and a detailed shared parking analysis that delineated all the unique uses planned for the site and accounted for the interactions expected to occur between patrons, artists, employees, and residents. A TDM (transportation demand management) statement was also provided to identify ways to reduce impacts and promote transit as Downtown Columbia becomes the next urban village.
We’re so proud to be part of a welcomed addition to Downtown Columbia!