Roger That

“Columbia’s master plan and zoning should be revisited primarily to retrofit and infill the town center, adding new streets and buildings with a rich mixture of uses, including housing.”

Though that statement sounds like it could have come from General Growth Properties as they seek zoning changes to transform Columbia’s downtown it actually came from Roger K. Lewis, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland School of Architecture. It was written twenty years ago.

In the fall of 1989, Roger wrote an article in the Columbia Magazine entitled “Are We a City Yet?” in which he lamented that “Columbia is really not that different from much of the rest of suburbia, not that different from the patchwork quilt of subdivisions ringing metropolitan Washington or Richmond, Boston or Philadelphia, Dallas or Los Angeles.”

So what does Roger think of GGP’s proposed plans for Town Center?

You can ask him yourself. Bring Back the Vision has invited Roger to share his views at a community meeting on Wednesday, January 14th from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM at the Vantage House Retirement Community in Town Center.

This should be interesting.