NOTE TO REPORTERS AND EDITORS: Members of the media and public are invited to a virtual presentation of the panel’s findings on Friday, March 11 from 9:00 am ET to 11:00 am ET. Click here to join.

WASHINGTON (March 7, 2022) – A group of renowned urban planning and real estate experts convened by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) will make recommendations next week to the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture on revitalizing and expanding the historic Glen Echo Park. The panel will focus on how to enhance the park’s artistic, cultural, and recreational offerings while improving its infrastructure, environmental sustainability, and resilience to fulfill its mission of providing the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area with a unique destination.

The ULI representatives will be conducting the program for Montgomery County from March 8-11 through ULI’s Advisory Services panel (ASP) offering. The panel is a multiday program that is tailored to meet a community’s specific needs, bringing together real estate experts in different areas such as land use, urban renewal, and community growth. The panel will spend time interviewing local stakeholders, understanding the community’s needs, and delivering advice on how best to tackle the issue at hand.

Sponsored jointly by the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture, ULI, and the JPB Foundation, the panel will provide strategic recommendations on the following:

• The creation of a foundational planning document to assist in fundraising for the Park Enhancement Plan, which will examine long-term improvements to the park and its facilities;
• Arts and cultural programmatic offerings that will help attract new, diverse audiences to the park, regionally and nationally;
• Strategies to improve the park’s environmental sustainability and resilience, including improvements in the park’s building operations, stormwater infrastructure, and energy efficiency;
• Revenue generating programs for arts organizations that can be supported outside and in all-weather, all-year facilities;
• Innovative partnership models that generate private and public sector investment for ongoing maintenance and capital projects.

The panel will be chaired by Michael Stern, principal at MAS Places, in Jackson, Wyo. “As a fixture of the Washington, D.C. metro region for the past 130 years, Glen Echo Park has the potential to be a notable historical site and a vibrant recreational and cultural attraction,” said Stern. “We look forward to working with the local leadership to envision a future for Glen Echo Park that serves new, diverse, and multi-generational audiences for years to come.”

Stern will be joined on the panel by Billy Grayson, executive vice president of Centers and Initiatives at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C.; Juanita Hardy, founder and managing principal at Tiger Management Consulting Group in Silver Spring, Md.; Aileen RG Horn, director of hospitality at KGD Architecture in Bethesda, Md.; Paul Moyer, AICP, ENV SP, principal at Jacobs Advancing Planning Group in Washington, D.C.; Jamison “Jamie” Weinbaum, executive vice president at MidCity in Washington, D.C.; and Audrey Wennink, director of transportation at Metropolitan Planning Council in Chicago, Ill.

In addition to interviewing stakeholders, the panel will tour the area before developing recommendations that will be presented at the conclusion of the panel’s visit.

Now in its 75th year, the ULI Advisory Services program assembles experts in the fields of real estate and land use to participate on panels worldwide, offering recommendations for complex planning and development projects, programs, and policies. Panels have developed more than 700 studies for a broad range of land uses, ranging from economic revival to climate change adaptation.

According to Thomas Eitler, senior vice president of ULI’s Advisory Services Program, the strength of the program lies in ULI’s unique ability to draw on the substantial knowledge of its 45,000-plus members, including land developers, engineers, public officials, academics, lenders, architects, planners, and urban designers. “The independent views of the panelists bring a fresh perspective to the land use challenge,” Eitler said. “The Advisory Services program is all about offering creative, innovative approaches to community building.

Past sponsors of ULI advisory services panels include federal, state, and local government agencies; regional councils of government; chambers of commerce; redevelopment authorities; private developers and property owners; community development corporations; lenders; historic preservation groups; non-profit community groups; environmental organizations; and economic development agencies.

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For more information, email [email protected].

About the Urban Land Institute

The Urban Land Institute is a nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the Institute has more than 45,000 members worldwide representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines. For more information on ULI, please visit uli.org or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.