Add ItemsControl items directly to parent

Question

I'm working on an application that uses the WPF Bing Maps library. The DataContext of the map control I'm working on has a list of GPS coordinates (Location objects), each of which should be represented by a Pushpin element on the map. I was hoping to add these pushpins to the map through XAML, using an ItemsControl (simplified for brevity):

<m:Map>
  <ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding GPSCoordinates}">
    <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
      <DataTemplate>
        <m:Pushpin Location="{Binding}">
      </DataTemplate>
    </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
  </ItemsControl>
</m:Map>

This doesn't work, however, because the Pushpin elements don't get added directly to the Map element; rather, they are encapsulated by the ItemsControl's ItemsPanel and the ItemsControl element itself. Is there a way to generate a list of items and have the items defined in the DataTemplate added directly to the ItemsControl's parent?

In other words, I'd like the Visual Tree to look like this:

<m:Map>
  <m:Pushpin />
  <m:Pushpin />
    ...
</m:Map>

instead of this:

<m:Map>
  <ItemsControl>
    <StackPanel>
      <m:Pushpin />
      <m:Pushpin />
        ...
    </StackPanel>
  </ItemsControl>
</m:Map>

Answer 1

Although it does not add Pushpins as direct children of the Map control, MapItemsControl is what you are looking for:

<m:Map ...>
    <m:MapItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding GPSCoordinates}">
        <m:MapItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
            <DataTemplate>
                <m:Pushpin Location="{Binding}"/>
            </DataTemplate>
        </m:MapItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
    </m:MapItemsControl>
</m:Map>