Project Spotlight: 2008 NDC Prince George's County Project of the Year
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People's Harbor at Colmar Manor

Each year the Neighborhood Design Center chooses a project that exemplifies civic engagement, quality of design, and positive impact on the community.  This year we are proud to honor the People's Harbor Project at Colmar Manor in Prince George's County (for additional images of the project click here).

In 2006, Port Towns CDC approached the Neighborhood Design Center to assist them in looking at redevelopment opportunities for a two-acre industrial site (currently the home of the National News Company) in Colmar Manor along Bladensburg Road/MD202 and the Anacostia River.  The plans developed by NDC volunteers Scott Walters and Stefanie McKenzie not only helped Port Towns CDC and the communities it represents create a vision for this neglected area of waterfront but, more importantly, aquire funding to move the project forward.  The funds were used for a design competition for the "People's Harbor Project."  Four architecture firms were shortlisted for the competition: 1) CSD Architects (Scott Walter's firm!), 2) Meyer, Scherer, and Rockcastle, 3) Arel Architects with PageSoutherlandPage, and 4) Devrouax + Purnell, with each receiving $10,000 to further develop the inital concepts prepared by NDC.

In the fall of 2007, the designs were presented to the Port Towns CDC and the local communities, who selected (as a tie) the firms of CSD Architects and Meyer, Scherer, and Rockcastle.  The Port Towns CDC is now moving forward with the project by sending out an RFP for potential developers (for more info and project updates, go to Port Towns CDC Website).

The project was selected because of the amount of community support and financial investment that NDC's initial designs were able to leverage.  Credit goes to the NDC volunteers, who were able to take a complex site and program and create a unified vision for mixed-use development, and to the Port Towns CDC, who used NDC's plans and drawings to engage hundreds of residents in the visioning process, build broad political support, and raise the necessary funds to begin moving this project closer to reality.