Three links about the reconstruction of Wilde Lake Village Center (nee Wilde Lake Village Green in Columbia).
Wilde Lake was the first village in the planned community of Columbia, Maryland, and the Village Green was among the first buildings. And after 40 years, there are plans afoot to gut the center and rebuild it. While the verbal descriptions are not too helpful, it sounds like the standard banal new urbanist insta-downtown writ small (see e.g. Excelsior and Grand in St. Louis Park Minnesota or Rockville Town Square in Maryland) sans grocery store. I have an interest because it was the shopping center of my youth as well as my interest in planning and the history of Columbia. Times change I suppose, and if the market isn’t there for what exists, it must be changed, though maybe the Historic Preservationists have something to say.
Big plans for Wilde Lake: Owner seeks to raze, rebuild village center – Columbia Flier
Reinventing Wilde Lake the aim — baltimoresun.com
Reinventing Wilde Lake Village Green – Tales Of Two Cities
For my take on what’s become of Columbia, see: Levinson, David (2003) The Next America Revisited. Journal of Planning Education and Research Summer 2003, Volume 22, Number 4, pp. 329-345.