New Town Center (Maryland)
The New Town Center, now known as University Town Center, is located in Hyattsville, Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. It was a planned urban center designed by Edward Durell Stone and located on a 105-acre (0.42 km2) parcel at the intersection of Belcrest Road and East-West Highway in Hyattsville, Maryland and across from the then new Prince George's Plaza. The initial construction on this development took place in 1963-64. A second phase commenced after the opening of the Prince George's Plaza station, Washington Metro rapid transit station in 1993.
The $78 million project was developed by Bancroft Construction, headed by Herschel and Marvin Blumberg who had originally purchased the site in 1954. The Blumberg brothers also developed the area of nearby Silver Spring, Maryland now known as the Rock Creek Woods Historic District. The original $5.5 million, 300,000-square-foot (28,000 m2) Federal office building (now known as Metro 1) was occupied in 1963 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Architect Stone referred to the development as a "Rockefeller Center in the countryside." Other original buildings were the highrise apartments Plaza Towers West and Plaza Towers East, located at Toledo Terrace and Belcrest Road. The Metro 2 office building was completed in 1968 and the Metro 3 building in 1971.
The original concept for the New Town Center was for it to be "a planned residential, commercial, employment and social complex which, as yet (1963) has no equal in the Baltimore-Washington area." The Blumberg brothers' plans included interlocking residential and commercial facilities including the separation of pedestrian and automobile traffic and the enhancement of open spaces by the use of sunken reflecting pools, fountains, and plantings. Also included in the 1964 plans were two more Stone-designed office buildings (built in 1968 and 1972), another apartment structure (not built), a 1,400 seat motion picture theater (not built), and a huge ice skating rink (not built). Most dramatic were plans for multiple 34-story apartment towers, which would have been among the tallest structures in the Washington, DC area. Plans were also included for a Youth Center (built at Toledo and Adelphi Roads) and a $1.3 million Prince George's County Cultural Center (not built). Transportation plans in 1964 called for a spur from I-95 to be built just west of the tract (not built) and for underground rapid transit service to serve the Federal Building. Parks, schools, churches, and recreational facilities (some built) were expected to form a transitional buffer between the new developments and the surrounding single-family homes, in University Park, Maryland.
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