West Hyattsville

The Challenge

Located at a WMATA Metro Station, the goal of this project was to fully integrate a new, transit-oriented development with an older, urbanized area without disrupting the community fabric. One of the challenges was to complete this integration while maintaining a sense of orderliness that would be non-disruptive to all types of commuters – pedestrian, vehicular, and public transit. Since residential was a component of the project, it was necessary to provide adequate recreational facilities and stormwater management. This was particularly challenging because the site is in an area that is mostly within a 100-year floodplain.

The Soltesz Solution

Soltesz utilized landscape architecture principles of scale, mass, and framing to develop symmetry to the site that was not apparent before. Even as the transit-oriented site was designed to add density in residential and retail, the site became less confusing to navigate and a sense of place was provided that relates well to the surrounding neighborhood. To take advantage of even the non-buildable portion of the land bay of the project, Soltesz utilized the 100-year floodplain area to provide designs for outdoor recreational features such as ball fields and as a stormwater management solution for the increased runoff from the added density.