At the ESSCA presentation the developer said the new chirch will retain the stone work front, stained glass windows, and other elements. I bet it keeps more of the old church than many other local buildings who purport to be preserving their old facades when they do a make-over.

Anything posted to a yahoo group list (private or not, invite only or not) is Google indexed and will come up in subject searches. They are working their way through the backlogs now.

Can someone please explain this sentence to me? Can a retention serve as an icon? What does it mean for buildings to bookend one another? Would the churches and the library both serve as icons? What does it mean to uniquely provide a gateway?

Honestly, this sounds like the syntex of Sarah Palin. Historic preservation need not be couched in such sentimental drivel.

My take: bring it on! The Baptist Church site consists mostly of underutilized space in the form of a giant parking lot which is used to capacity only a few times out of the week. Once the library site and purple line is constructed across the street, it makes sense to bring housing and retail near transit and the existing development. That’s what smart growth is all about. That’s why I moved here. That’s why I love it here, and that’s why I want to stay here.

Does that make me apathetic about celebrating and preserving the heritage of Silver Spring? Well, yeah, I guess it does. Maybe it’s because I’ve lived here a mere seven years, or maybe it’s because the Baptist Church is not an institution that has been personally important to me or my family. Or maybe it’s because I see the heritage of Silver Spring–in terms of its built environment–as a decidely mixed bag. It’s filled with charming structures like the Tasty Diner and Wellers but also stuff that’s just not much to write home about like the auto repair stuff. And when it comes to Fenton Village, let’s face it, it may have been a residential neighborhood once upon a time but those days are over and now there is way too much surface parking.

I know how the song goes, “you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone.” But in this case, maybe we can pave over the parking lot and put up a paradise.