the Neighborhood Design Center

Architectural and Interior Design

New Horizons Interior Design

Renderings for new workshop space at New Horizons in Upper Marlboro, MD.

New Horizons Supported Services, Inc. empowers participants with varying disabilities and special needs, maximizing their potential for independence and inclusion both vocationally and socially.

Since acquiring their Upper Marlboro space in 2000, New Horizons has not updated its facilities. The organization’s leadership sought to revamp these outdated spaces to foster a sense of pride among their community members. NDC assisted New Horizons by providing interior design improvement recommendations.

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Envisioning a more inviting and accessible workshop area.

We planned and facilitated visioning workshops with new horizons staff, board members, and program participants. Based on these workshops, NDC developed a floor plan layout for the large workshop space, plus a design palette to guide future redesigns of other communal spaces in the facility.

The key to our design was a flexible floorplan. Partitions double as privacy/soundproofing and gallery exhibition walls. Desks can be rearranged to make room for the retractable stage. Organizational areas can become more prominent as needed.
The key to our design was a flexible floorplan. Partitions double as privacy/soundproofing and gallery exhibition walls. Desks can be rearranged to make room for the retractable stage. Organizational areas can become more prominent as needed.

Design Highlights

    • Staff seating in the middle area — this spatial configuration allows for wide-angle observations and monitoring, fostering active engagement between all users in every zone.

    • The retractable main stage allows for a community forum, and neatly folds away when not needed.

    • The group computer zone offer a quieter studying time with the pairing of rollable acoustical partitions.

    • Thinking about the future: We chose resilient flooring to ensure protection against high-traffic pattern, preserved existing plumbing routing for kitchenette, and transferred the detached basketball set to a wall-mounted fixture.

This project was led by NDC Staff Angelica Arias and Maura Dwyer with support from design volunteers Duong Le and Xuan Vo. It was funded by the Community Design Works Program.

Last Updated August 2025

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