Kentlands is well known among planners as the first New Urbanist neighborhood meant for permanent residence. Although Seaside, FL was the first N.U. project of any kind, it's a resort and is not meant for year-round occupation. Kentlands, on the other hand, is a regular city neighborhood where thousands of people live every day.

Construction began on the 350 acre Kentlands, designed by Duany Plater-Zyberk in 1988. Although New Urbanism has become very popular over the last decade and a half, Kentlands is still looked as one of the best and most well designed examples.

In the mid-90s, National Geographic moved out of their headquarters campus abutting Kentlands. Although all their offices were in a single, massive building, it was surrounded by hundreds of acres of park land. When the nursing home company Manor Care moved their headquarters to the site shortly thereafter, they decided such a large campus was unnecessary and sold off much of the land to a developer. The powers that be in the City of Gaithersburg, noting the overwhelming success of Kentlands, re-zoned the undeveloped land from commercial to mixed-use. Thus was born Lakelands, another New Urbanist neighborhood (also designed by DPZ) that is essentially an extension of Kentlands. The differences being that Kentlands and Lakelands are owned by different developers and employ slightly different architectural styles (Kentlands is generally Colonial while Lakelands is generally 1900s Vernacular). Other than those minor differences, the two form a seamless neighborhood of almost 600 acres.

The photos in this tour have been taken over the course of about 4 years. Many of them show the neighborhood in various stages of construction. Indeed, much of Lakelands and Market Square are still under construction.

Photo Tour:

Technically part of Kentlands but actually contemporary with Lakelands in both time of construction and architectural style, Market Square is the "downtown" for Gaithersburg's West Side. It's focused around a small plaza:

Adjacent to the plaza is a small ice skating rink. During warm months it's a mini-golf course.

Market Street connects the plaza with Kentlands Boulevard, one possible location of light rail when the Corridor Cities Transitway is built.

Although it's urban in nature, Market Square still has anchors. The two large draws are a Michaels store and an 8 screen independently owned movie theater.

Main Street runs perpendicular to Market Street and is a part of Lakelands. The units are mixed-use with retail on the bottom floor and residential or office above. Also note the "pocket park". Since grassy lawns are few and far between, a number of very small parks can be found throughout the neighborhood.

Mixed-use units (usually called "Live / Works" in Gaithersburg) surround Market Square.

Hundreds of double-stacked residential row houses are found throughout the neighborhood, but they are especially concentrated in the blocks near Market Square.

A few examples of pocket parks, starting with the one on Main Street.

Rowhouses are the dominant form of housing.

Apartments are common as well. Densities of apartment clusters generally run around the 50 units / acre range. The first picture is from Quince Orchard Road, an arterial street forming the northern border of Kentlands. The second picture is from Kentlands Boulevard.

Single family houses make up less than half the total units (BeyondDC doesn’t know the exact percentage). They are more common in Lakelands than Kentlands.

Kentlands is famous for having many single family homes fronting on pedestrian paths rather than streets.

... As well as many that share porches.

Some units straddle the line between rowhouse and single family house.

Though there were relatively few to start off with, an increasing number of the houses are adding granny flats.

Originally all this land was part of an 18th and 19th Century plantation. The Kent Mansion currently serves as a special events building, hosting small meetings, weddings, etc.

The outbuildings from the plantation now serve a variety of  uses:

... The old firehouse is now a small office.

... The old barn is now a city-owned arts facility with galleries, artists in residence and a small theater.

Sidewalk scenes from all over the neighborhood.