Dream City: Lakefront Plans Once Abandoned, Now in Spotlight

The downtown Lakefront was once supposed to be the shining star of Columbia, a place with numerous restaurants, nightclubs—and even a roller rink.

But those ideas for Columbia’s Lakefront faded during the recession of the mid-1970s and left what some see as an unfinished product.

said that in 1966, a year before Columbia came to be, the Lakefront and Columbia’s Town Center would include restaurants and other attractions, such a small boat marina, according to documents from the Columbia Archives.

Sketches of the Town Center and the Lakefront from early days show a mix of entertainment options inspired by Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens, a famous amusement park in Denmark.

In 1972, with the Maryland “Tivoli” incomplete, a planning team took another crack at it.

The ideas they pitched included boat rides on Lake Kittamaqundi, a small Ferris wheel, and—interestingly—a restaurant on the foot bridge between the Columbia Mall and Lake Kittamaqundi that passes over Little Patuxent Parkway.

Columbia Archives Director Barbara Kellner said some memos talked about shops on the mall bridge as well.

Mort Hoppenfeld, Columbia’s key planner and architect said all the ideas were “easy to design, but hard to make happen,” according to Columbia Archives materials.

The ideas and sketches flew around with some urgency and then, “the trail stops,” coinciding with the recession of 1973-74, Kellner said.

When the economy picked up late 70s, residential construction became more of the focus of the Howard Research and Development Corp., the development arm of the Rouse Company in Columbia, she said.

Just last month, we heard about “” in the context of downtown and the Lakefront again—this time, coming from former Rouse land planner Cy Paumier, who has been hired by the Columbia Association to develop a series of designs to improve the Lakefront

“I always had a dream we’d make the Lakefront a whole lot more attractive than it is,” . “It’s the only public space of any consequence today. Its potential could be so much greater.”

Paumier’s ideas include a better Lakefront walkway that is closer to the water, as well as a doubling or tripling of outdoor dining.

He also said he’d like the Lakefront to be a more comfortable place to sit, noting that the slopes are very steep.

What are your ideas for a lively Lakefront? Post below.

About this series: Associate Local Editor Lisa Rossi, with the help of Columbia Archives Manager Barbara Kellner, is writing a series of short posts about how early ideas about Columbia’s past can spur conversations today about its future. Do you have a historical aspect of Columbia you think should be explored? E-mail Lisa at lisa.rossi@patch.com

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