Blue Line Civic Plaza

Largo, MD

The Civic Plaza project in Largo challenged the design-build team from Design Collective and J. Vinton Schafer Construction to meet multiple, lofty goals.

Part of Prince George’s County’s Blue Line Corridor revitalization strategy, the site needed to become a vibrant, inclusive, multi-use community destination that could support everything from large festivals, farmers markets and public protests to low-key, everyday recreational use. It would have to include a large lawn and stage, an outdoor game area, a children’s playground, a dog park and a butterfly garden.

And Largo residents had firm ideas about how the new plaza should look.

“We went through a public engagement process and the public was very clear that they didn’t want a traditional open space,” said Brian Reetz, Principal at Design Collective. “They wanted something that was art-focused and represented the community.”

Early financial analysis concluded it would be impossible to fit all the desired structures and amenities within the budget using conventional designs and products. So, the project team embraced a “tactical urbanism” approach — a lower cost and often art-based process of creating dynamic public spaces.

Rather than investing in decorative pavers, the team contracted an artist to create a huge ground mural. The bold, abstract composition of blues, greens and purples would flow across walkways, patios, play spaces and part of the adjacent parking lot.

Early in the design process, the team color-coordinated the mural with custom structures that would be crafted for the plaza.

There is the Osprey Structure “that provides shade and has a unique shape. This was designed and fabricated in Arizona,” said Anthony Vaughn, Senior Project Manager at J. Vinton Schafer Construction.

There was custom playground equipment and “pavilions with colored acrylic panels and swings,” Vaughn said. “These all had very long lead times to design, fabricate, custom paint and deliver to the site from Kalamazoo, Michigan. The design and fabrication for these started prior to the remainder of the plaza being finalized due to the lead times.”

There was also the Free Speech Stage with its irregularly shaped, heavily textured and aqua-colored “frame.”

“The plaza is beside the Wayne K. Curry Administration Building so the idea was to create a location for Instagrammable moments,” Reetz said. “We have the free speech frame on the stage. There’s also a peace sign, a handshake symbol, a power-to-the-people symbol to create a mood in a public setting where government is involved. This becomes a recognizable location where television crews can set up and people may gather to protest issues.”

Limited to a one-acre site, the design-build team also maximized the project’s use of space. Part of an existing parking lot was covered in lawn but a traffic cut-through was added to enable the local farmers market to use a section of the remaining parking space.

Thank you to the BC&E member companies that contributed to this story: Design Collective and J. Vinton Schafer Construction.