Client/Builder/Developer:   Kettler
Location:  Columbia, Howard County, MD
Market: Mixed-Use Residential, Retail, Restaurant
Size:  4.6 acres
Zoning: Downtown Columbia, Warfield Neighborhood
Density:  380 Residential Units, 13.500 Square Feet Retail and Restaurant

The Metropolitan is a mixed-use project located in Downtown Columbia, just south of the Columbia Mall. It includes a 6-story residential building with retail and restaurants at street level. The entire building wraps around a precast parking structure. Although the project is part of the Columbia redevelopment, the site was not fully developed and only partially graded. GLW was charged with providing surveying, engineering and planning services to create an urban road grid network and other required infrastructure. GLW also developed and processed the Site Development Plans using Howard County’s new Downtown Columbia review system. The challenges for GLW planners included following the recently enacted Downtown Columbia legislation that created new site development requirements. The challenges for our engineers included addressing the relationship of steeply sloped streets to a large urban building and its impact to pedestrian and vehicular access, and streetscape frontage design.

GLW was brought in to provide engineering, surveying and plan processing knowledge to guide the initial planning, develop Final Development Plans and Site Development Plans, as well as construction coordination. The extensive stormwater management design integrated seamlessly within the design of the project’s hardscape and landscape. The stormwater management design met all regulatory requirements but also created an educational opportunity for Howard County officials to observe how storm water flows and can be managed. GLW coordinated detailed site grading with the project’s architects to align finished floor elevations to the exterior grades, adjacent sidewalks and roadways. GLW’s site grading also successfully created pedestrian connectivity and handicap accessibility between the parking structures and nearby retail restaurants.

Client/Builder/Developer:  Mill Creek Residential
Location:  Westside Boulevard, Laurel, Maryland
Market: Multi-family
Size:  26.80 Acres
Zoning: M-X-T
Density:  18 DU/Acre

The Modera Westside multi-family development is part of a larger 56.63 acre mixed-use development that also includes townhouses, hotel and a retail center.  The property, which enjoys a prime location minutes from I-95 and adjacent to the future Konterra mixed use town center, was annexed into the City of Laurel in 2012. The project is built on reclaimed land that had been previously mined for sand and gravel. An existing stream and two major water lines define the boundaries on two sides of the property.  A large sediment control pond needed for the mining operation had to be converted to a sediment control pond then stormwater management pond for the multi-family development. Before the apartments could be constructed, GLW designed a 1,700’ long public street which had to be built and dedicated to the City of Laurel to provide access to the land-locked multi-family property.  

GLW provided full entitlement processing services from rezoning to site plan approval.  Site grading and engineering focused on designing a submerged gravel wetland in the stormwater management pond that could handle both water quality and 100 year flooding events for most of the larger 56 acre property.  A single sanitary sewer location required all site grading and sewer design to accommodate future on-site development. To allow construction of the apartments over the former sand and gravel mine, GLW provided detailed settlement monitoring of soil compaction during the backfilling operation.  The entrance road was designed and located to allow for a large berm and landscaping to buffer views of the development from the adjacent residential neighborhood.