Happy Birthday, Town Square — Welcome to Double Digits!
While the 10th anniversary is a special milestone in anyone’s life, Town Square’s decade as an iconic downtown gathering space was highlighted even more in October with a jury citation in the Montgomery County Planning Department’s third annual Design Excellence Awards.
A celebration of Town Square’s 10th birthday will be held 6-9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3 in Town Square, with live music, strolling entertainment, cake and an anniversary toast from Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton.
Rockville Town Square Plaza opened in 2007. The mixed-use, public-private, transit-oriented project represented the first phase of the city’s Town Center Master Plan. The primary concept behind creating the 40,000-square-foot open space was to recreate Rockville’s downtown as the heart of the city.
The Design Excellence Awards seek to “recognize exceptional work in architecture, landscape architecture and urban design,” according to the county planning department’s website. This year’s Design Excellence Awards honored both buildings and landscapes in Montgomery County that are currently in use and less than 10 years old. Town Square Plaza, planned and designed by Street-Works Studio, was recognized for its high-quality design in the Open Spaces and Landscapes category.
“This space does everything that a public square should do,” the competition’s jurors stated. “It encourages activities, such as sitting on the grass, splashing in the fountain, meeting friends, shopping, ice skating and Zumba dancing, that are all about connection and community. The square is not only the symbolic center of Rockville, but its civic heart.”
While considered a city park, Town Square was designed to serve suburban-style neighborhoods in a fully urban setting where numerous uses for the space converge.
“A goal was to create an outdoor ‘room,’ inside of which the public could feel comfortable, but to still feel open, and for the buildings not to block sky and sun,” said David Levy, Rockville’s chief of long range planning. “It was modeled, generally, on Italian piazzas.”
Rockville received the citation from the county at a ceremony on Oct. 19. For more details, visit Rockville Town Square on Facebook.