Design Team: Trout Central
Final Design Proposals

Manifesto

We want to build Owings Mills in a way that discourages its presently sprawling patterns of development. We would rather see Owings Mills grow in a manner which encourages an urbanistic, civic life.

We value dense development for two main reasons: because it encourages a sense of community and because it is more environmentally reponsible.

We want to value and express the systematic connections between Owings Mills and the outside world. The highway, the metro, and the parkway connect Owings Mills to Baltimore and to other towns in the area. The Red Run Stream and the Gwynn's Falls River are part of a riparian system which also connects Owings Mills to Baltimore and to the Chesapeake Bay.

Town center master plan

To accomplish these goals, we have established our own guidelines for structuring Owings Mills:

Formal garden and shopping mall additions

Community center and amphitheater by swale park on south side

There should be a mixing of uses for most areas in Owings Mills.
Places of gathering (town squares, plazas, community centers, farmers markets, etc.) should be readily accessible from different areas of the town.

Main bicycle routes

The connections between the more urban, commercial,civic area (near the mall) and the more residential area (on the hill) should be clearly expressed.

Walking distances to metro stop & office park

A diversity of transportation should be available and encouraged: Owings Mills should be a place where bikers and pedestrians should be accommodated. A system of public transportation should be developed. Car traffic should not imede these other modes of transportation.

Housing types for southside residential area

Residential block south of the mall

View of residential street

Parking should be on the street as much as possible. Overflow parking should be accommodated in structured parking and in lots.
Roads should have a scale and route which suggest their relative importance, i.e. bigger roads lead to more publicspaces, smaller roads lead to more quiet and private places.
Buildings and landscapes should have a discernable hierarchy.
Buildings should be mostly in human scale.

Solar farms

The town should be an energy-efficient place: including solar power, natural lighting of buildings, improved hydrology.

Public recreation areas

The stream and its buffer zone should be left as park land, recognizing that it is both environmentally sound to prevent the stream's pollution, and also culturally important for the town to share a common park space.

Courtyard & public greens as stormwater infiltration areas

A system of urban hydrology should be developed which not only serves to manage storn water, but which also organizes and structures the circulation and gathering of people. This urban hydrology mitigates the damaging effects of dense development on the stream, and it also acts as a measuring device for weather and climate changes throughout the course of the year.