Gables Pike District

With a goal of reducing superblocks and managing dense, urban growth, a cornerstone of the Montgomery County White Flint Sector Plan is the “Western Workaround,” a realignment of Old Georgetown Road and Executive Boulevard. Between these two thoroughfares is Wall Park with the Montgomery County Kennedy-Shriver Aquatic Center, and just north, a new Gables Residential-assembled parcel. This complex, public-private partnership achieves two key Sector Plan goals: a shared parking structure on the Gables property for both Gables’ use and the County’s use (for the Aquatic Center and park), and the realignment of two major roads for more efficient traffic flow. The relocation of the parking provides for useable green space for the park and community residents.

Torti Gallas, Gables Residential, and the County’s Parks and Recreation Department together envisioned how the adjacent properties would best achieve the Sector Plan goals. A new “Via” that creates a more civically minded front door for Wall Park allows vehicular and pedestrian access for park and Aquatic Center users, and becomes a vibrant internal street for residents and shoppers.

The new mixed-use community is in close proximity to the White Flint Metro Station and larger destination retail. With prescribed reduced parking rates, and incoming, younger, more active and urban-minded residents, reliance on the automobile diminishes; yet another Sector Plan goal is achieved through Incentive Density. Gables’ residential units are complemented by retail spaces and two courtyards which provide outdoor residential amenities. The shared parking structure provides 400 spaces for the County and over 500 spaces for residents and retail patrons.

Torti Gallas designed three buildings with distinct identities that leverage the scale of the buildings, provide breathing room and bio-planter spaces between buildings, and foster a sense of community. Attention to scale and detail as well as materiality and quality ensures that Gables White Flint meets the County’s Incentive Density goal of exceptional design. While bridges above street level interconnect all of the buildings, street life will remain robust as the primary residential indoor amenities are centrally located at ground level.