Meet New Principal: Cecily Bedwell, AICP, LEED AP BD+C

A Certified Planner and LEED Building Design + Construction Accredited Professional, Cecily has spent the past 18 years at Design Collective focusing on large-scale planning, campus master planning, and urban design and revitalization projects in the firm’s Urban Design Studio.

As Principal, she oversees and manages the firm’s complex planning projects involving market and economic, traffic and transportation, environmental and public relations consultants. She has been instrumental in the master planning process for diverse urban, housing, campus and mixed-use projects, developing the urban and architectural design guidelines for nearly all of Design Collective’s large, mixed-use master plan projects.

Ms. Bedwell has been involved in a broad range of participatory planning projects including workshops and design charrettes. She is exceptionally skilled at collaborating with municipalities and institutions within a public process for planning and urban design, developing appropriate and contextual master plans, concept plans, and design guidelines. She has worked closely with municipalities in revising their zoning regulations; preparing overlay zoning ordinances and Transit-Oriented Development language; and administering design guidelines for counties, cities and private developers.

A proponent of the principles of urbanism, Ms. Bedwell has presented nationally and locally to developers, community groups, and public officials, advocating the benefits of sustainable mixed-use development. She brings to each of her projects an understanding of the benefits of pedestrian- and transit-friendly design, the advantages of integrating uses and building types, and the importance of an engaging public process.
 

• Among her most notable projects, Ms. Bedwell participated in the week-long design charrette that established a new 30-year vision for Columbia Town Center. More than 1,000 residents participated, resulting in a comprehensive plan that illustrated how the 500-acre Town Center could be transformed into a walkable, urban environment. The adopted Downtown Columbia Plan embodies the recommendations which include densifying and evolving Columbia's core over time into a fully mixed-use downtown with residential, retail, office, and civic buildings. She continues to work in Downtown Columbia on planning and architectural design projects within several of the neighbourhoods including Warfield, Crescent, and Lakefront.
• She led the multi-consultant team for the Maryland-National Park and Planning Commission’s Purple Line Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Study focused on five station area plans along the proposed Purple Line light rail route. The study’s five station areas extend from Beacon Heights in the east to West Campus, located adjacent to the University of Maryland College Park campus. Strategies and recommendations were developed and adopted for optimizing land use, promoting multi-modal transportation and access, employing Complete Streets strategies, reassessing parking requirements, integrating open space, and promoting economic development. As part of the study, a TOD Zoning Template was established to guide future redevelopment and understand the potential of Transit-Oriented Development.
• For the Largo Town Center Sector Plan, Ms. Bedwell led a multidisciplinary team including urban design/planning, transportation, and market/economic consultants. Anchored by the Largo Town Center Metro Station, the terminal station for the Blue Line in Prince George’s County, the plan area is approximately 800 acres including more than 200 acres of vacant or undeveloped parcels; the remainder of the area is largely under-developed with auto-centric, suburban commercial and residential uses. The planning effort included a series of intensive community workshop. The resulting community-based plan, containing recommendations for future transit-oriented development, was adopted by the Joint Planning Board and County Council in October 2013.
• In Downtown Frederick, Maryland, Ms. Bedwell participated in a week-long charrette to create a redevelopment strategy for its East Street Corridor, including urban design, land use, design guidelines, open space, and infrastructure improvements. The charrette included participation from historic preservation advocates, developers, property owners, the City’s economic development agency, residents and small business owners. Under her leadership, the proposed redevelopment strategy received virtually unanimous approval from charrette participants. Since the plan’s adoption, over $150 million of private investment has led the transformation into a vibrant, mixed-use, transit-oriented district.
• From the first public meeting in 1998 and the initial master plan concepts to present day Design Guidelines review and administration, Ms. Bedwell has been involved in the planning and architectural design of Maple Lawn, a 607-acre mixed-use community in Howard County, Maryland, designed according to the principles of Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND). Maple Lawn was planned with five walkable neighborhoods and one Business District for 2.1 million square feet of Commercial and 1,340 Residential Units and is nearing completion.
• Ms. Bedwell led the recent master plan effort for Glen Lennox involving the mixed-use redevelopment of a 70-acre site near downtown Chapel Hill, North Carolina. When complete, the project will include approximately 1,600 residential units including multi-family and single-family units, 130,000 SF of retail and restaurants, 500,000 SF of office, a 130-key hotel, a greenway with shared-use path, and a variety of additional open spaces including plazas, greens, and mews.

Ms. Bedwell began her architectural career at the town planning firm of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company. She received her master’s degree in architecture from the University of Maryland and her bachelor’s degree in architectural history from Syracuse University.