The Silver Spring Civic Building now has windows and doors. After years of waiting, we can finally compare the artist’s renderings to the real thing.

Rendering (left) and current photo (right) of the Silver Spring Civic Building.

Even though I initially didn’t like the design of the Civic Building at first, I’m really excited to see it completed. It’s sleek but also inviting, and it’ll hopefully be a stage for many great public events in the future.

Three months after first installing the ice rink, the canopy above is coming together. What looks like an ordinary open truss now will eventually be clad in a translucent material that will glow at night.

Rendering (left) and current construction (right) of the canopy.

The ice rink will complete the “urban room” in front of Baja Fresh, visually enclosing the space and giving outdoor diners something to watch. (Will people eat outside at the same time of year when people are ice skating? Probably not. But the rink will double as a stage when it’s warm.)

Site plan (left) and photograph (right) of the plaza.

It’s always gratifying to see a building come to fruition. We’ll hopefully celebrate the opening of the Civic Building and Veterans’ Plaza on July 1, just in time for summer. In the meantime, you can take a trip through the past year of construction with this slideshow.

Dan Reed (they/them) is Greater Greater Washington’s regional policy director, focused on housing and land use policy in Maryland and Northern Virginia. For a decade prior, Dan was a transportation planner working with communities all over North America to make their streets safer, enjoyable, and equitable. Their writing has appeared in publications including Washingtonian, CityLab, and Shelterforce, as well as Just Up The Pike, a neighborhood blog founded in 2006. Dan lives in Silver Spring with Drizzy, the goodest boy ever.