Community Corner

Inner Arbor Designers Show Art and Purpose at Introduction Event

Residents said they were impressed, but cost questions remained.

The introduction of the team who will develop Symphony Woods began with thanks to the Columbia Association and Howard County who have provided $1.6 million and $3.5 million, respectively, to begin the project.

After that, one by one, the design and architectural team talked about their careers. While the event went into great detail about the designers, there was nothing revealed about how the concept plan for Symphony Woods, "The Inner Arbor Plan", has been updated or how its more expensive features like the treetop walkway or the buildings in the arts center will be paid for.

Michael McCall, the president and CEO of the Inner Arbor Trust, said a 6:30 p.m. Dec. 2 pre-submission community meeting at Rouse Student Services Hall will go into greater detail about the plan.

About 200 people came out to the event held at Smith Theater in the Horowitz Center at Howard Community College Monday night.

Martha Schwartz, a Harvard professor who runsMartha Schwartz Partners, engaged the room with her work and her humor. She made the crowd laugh. Her career arc from young landscape designer refreshing a small garden plot in front of her Boston townhouse using bagels, to large-scale projects in Dublin and Manchester, England showed off her work as a well-tested, well-traveled landscape architect capable of complementing purpose with art.

She talked about how large-scale developments that focus on striking landscape features can become "future-proofed", or economically stable, even in a recession.

"Through changing the landscape you can transform polluted or underused spaces into places with great meaning," said Schwartz.

Schwartz will handle the design of the landscape in Symphony Woods with the help of the landscape architecture firm Mahan Rykiel, which is well known for projects in the Baltimore area such as Pierce's Park at Pier 6, the buildings at Harbor Place and here in Columbia, where they assisted with the 20-year master plan for Downtown Columbia.

Marc Fornes, a self-described nerd, who designs bulbous, curvaceous, sail-like forms dotted with gaps and holes using computer algorithms was retained by the Trust to work on the wooded amphitheater, which Howard County budgeted $3.5 million for this fiscal year.

He showed off his Louis Vuitton red and white pop-up store made of carbon fiber. Near the end of his presentation he presented forms that resembled awnings from an amphitheater, although much of his work appeared more modern art than functional architecture.

"It's not necessarily a structure," said Fornes, "it's a fully immersive environment."

According to McCall, he'll work with Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang of nArchitects on the amphitheater. McCall said nArchitects would focus more on the structural design of the amphitheater.

Bunge and Hoang have designed striking bamboo structures, a visitor's center for a Dutch farmhouse, and are in the process of leading the construction of the Navy Pier project in Chicago, a large-scale redevelopment.

"In all our projects we're looking for some kind of intersection between art, architecture and landscape," said Hoang.

Raj Patel, an acoustics expert from Arup, has also been retained by the Inner Arbor Trust for the project.

Afterwards, residents said they were impressed, although questions remained.

"What I don't understand is how it's all going to fit together," said Chuck Thomas, of Oakland Mills. "But there's a lot of talent here."

Alex Hekimian and Russ Swatek, two Columbia Association board members who have questioned the cost of the project, which has not been discussed by CA or McCall, continued to wonder how this will be paid for.

"I think it's an impressive cast of characters," said Swatek. "It's a good sales job, but how do you bring it into fruition."

Swatek said he still had reservations about putting large buildings in Symphony Woods. He said the open air environment is what makes the Merriweather area special.

McCall said the arts village—where buildings like CA Headquarters and a community center have been planned—is not part of this phase of the Inner Arbor project.

"The question is cost," said Hekimian. "It's going to take more than CA to make this vision these folks are describing."

Related Articles

Inner Arbor Trust to Unveil Team and Updated Plans for Symphony Woods

Inner Arbor Trust Adds Landscape Architect and New Board Member

Inner Arbor Trust President Says Meetings Not Public

Inner Arbor Trust Board Adds Four Directors

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