Take a leisurely drive through Woodland Village in Ellicott City, and you're sure to appreciate the community's name.
From the moment you enter the neighborhood via Old Stockbridge Drive, the village feeling is evident.
Situated on 120 acres of former farmland, the community of 800 townhouses and condominiums is surrounded by lush landscaping -- $1 million worth of landscaping.
When Chateau Builders began developing the concept of Woodland Village, careful consideration was given to the look and feel of the project.
Particular attention was paid to enhancing the natural beauty of the existing land features.
Richard Azrael and Neil Glasser, principals of Chateau Builders, were especially interested in creating a sense of home and JTC community in the Woodland Village project.
"We developed a very unique land plan for this project," said Azrael, whose firm was the ninth most active builder by sales of new homes last year in Howard County.
"We were very aware of trying to create a real village feeling throughout the community."
Indeed, the sense is that of a friendly village as groups of townhouses and condominiums, also referred to as gardenhomes, are tucked cozily among hundreds of trees and bushes.
The landscape plan employed in Woodland Village is so unusual that Chateau Builders won the 1995 Project of the Year award presented by the Land Development Council of the Homebuilders Association of Maryland.
The entire community is swaddled in green, with plantings of red maple, white ash, pin oak, evergreens, flowering bushes and perennials.
With the most recent plants installed in the final phase of the village, the price tag on the landscaping reached $1 million.
Azrael considers it money well spent.
"The investment made in the landscaping in Woodland Village has more than paid off for us as builders and will continue to be an asset to the homeowners here," he said.
The tranquil look of Woodland Village extends to the exterior of the townhouses and gardenhomes.
Homes in the first section of the village are shaded in blues, grays or brown tones and have an almost chalet-like appearance.
The townhouses hug the outside edges of large cul-de-sacs with the condominiums perched in the center.
Since beginning construction in Woodland Village some 10 years ago, Chateau Builders has varied the look of the homes, but has still managed to create a well-blended development where the styles complement.
