What's New on Howard Street?

 Nothing stands more for Baltimore's problems than The Wire and Howard Street. People just need to utter the street name and the eye-rolling begins.

While there are good reasons for this bad image, 23 years of Superblock failures and even longer the inability to give light rail signal priority to speed its downtown journey, for example, overall reality in this former downtown shopping street is better than the image.

A very wlecome redevelopment of the former Greyhound Station at 601 N. Howard Street open its doors last month to 6 squash courts, 3 classrooms, a communal kitchen, administrative offices, a fitness center. The old bus terminal is now a youth-center offering space for playing squash, workouts, youth development, PE clinics, school field trips, memberships, leagues, tournaments, community clinics, and Women’s and Girl’s Squash Clinics. 

 The Greyhound is still there (Photo: Philipsen)

The art deco style bus terminal had many lives and many vacancies. After Greyhound moved its buses to the Trailways bus terminal on Fayette Street (now demolished) the building stood vacant before the Baltimore Center of Governments (now BMC) occupied it for many years. But they moved to Canton and then the Greyhound Station became a film center. More vacancy followed until architect Kuo Pao Lian of  PI.KL Studio in tandem with John Porter of Porter Construction converted it for Abby Markoe, Executive Director and founder of Baltimore SquashWise.

SquashWise utilizes the sport of squash to bring people together in community and to support them in reaching their goals. SquashWise was co-founded by a group of passionate squash players — Abby Markoe, Doug Hoffberger, Nancy Cushman, Peter Heffernan, and Charlie Wise. (website)

In the telling of the contractor and architect this latest conversion which utilized state and federal historic tax credits was no easy undertaking, especially since squash courts have to conform the certain size standards while the Maryland Historic Trust wanted to keep as many details of the 1920s bus station intact. 

The result is a bright spot, inside and out, bringing this important corner at Howard and Centre Street back to life with urban youth at its center. The courts and the central meeting space with the giant suspended Greyhound logo only fit into the old 20' tall waiting hall of the bus terminal after one bay of second floor was shaved off. The result is a convincing reincarnation that is bright, friendly and inviting. 

SquashWise at the former Greyhound Terminal
(Photo: Philipsen)

The 600 block of Howard Street previously saw the conversion of the former Planned Parenthood building, the creation of a small pocket parket opposite from the former Greyhound station and has now a row of small houses under construction that had been owned by the MD Historical Society and were boarded up for decades. 

The 500 block consists of one of Baltimore's oldest conversions, what is now the Chesapeake Commons Apartments. Next to them the facade of the Mayfair Theater is awaiting to be kissed awake again, a project that has been talked about for decades as well, but that is still to come. Further South, the 400 block of Howard Street has seen renovations end to end on both sides of the street with a full rehab project on the northwest corner of Howard and Mulberry Street still under construction. The area south of Mulberry Street is more problematic all the way down to Fayette and Baltimore Streets before Howard Street with few active uses. MTA has plans to relaign its tracks and make a better Lexington Station and BDC is fully determined to finally reslove the Superblock conundrum. However, not much is known about the status of a new attempt of development. 

Otherwise, the Mayor embraced the Downtown Rise program which is now also administered by BDC. It is a program that will fix up the streets and sidewalks and bring a less autocentered feel to downtown. Much of that is also still on paper with an example how it would look visible at Baltimore and Eutaw Streets. 

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

Picture gallery

(Photo: Philipsen)

From Left: Operator, Architect and Builder (Photo: Philipsen)

SquashWise offices (Photo: Philipsen)

Hanging out at Squashwise (Photo: Philipsen)

Reception desk with display of courts on the screen (Photo: Philipsen)

One of six courts (Photo: Philipsen)

The lights are back on at this prominent corner (Photo: Philipsen)

The Old Greyhound Station (wall exhibit at Squashwise)

Restored (wall exhibit at SquashWise)

The lights are also on at the old Planned Parenthood Building
with the Central Ave LRT stop in front (Photo: Philipsen)

Rehabbing is underway on these buildings across from the old
Planned Parenthood building (Photo: Philipsen)

Renovation underway at the corner of Howard and Mulberry
(Photo: Philipsen)

MTA wants to eliminate the swwop in the rails and align the curbs new for a modernized Lexington Station
(Banner photo)

Tide Point - From Beacon of Hope to Near Empty Shell

It was on the 15th day of December in the last year of the last century when many of the 2,000 guests approaching via Fort Avenue struggled to find their shoreline destination in Locust Point, and once there, had a hard time finding parking. Once that was achieved, an expectant line of people streamed into the giant hulk of the old Procter & Gamble soap factory's industrial complex, guided more by the person in front of them than by any reliable lighting. Anyone who was anybody was here to attend the Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse (SBE&R) annual holiday party. Even inside, darkness prevailed. The only illumination was a long, double line of sparkling Christmas trees leading through the cold and damp construction site, which was completely bare of services.

Bill Struever giving a talk at Innovation
Week in 2013 (Philipsen) 

Bill Struever's party had historically been held at the Cross Street Market, where not only business people but also the homeless happily partook in the free food and drink. To keep the market merchants whole, they were now lined up in a large space converted to a banquet hall for one night to serve the customary beer, shrimp, and oysters. The homeless didn't make it to Locust Point—possibly one of the reasons why this working-class neighborhood on a peninsula would soon take off as a desirable destination for young urbanists of all stripes.

Struever, looking as always as if he had just climbed out of bed, was nevertheless radiant. Fitting his image as an ever-energetic and optimistic dealmaker, he bobbed happily through the crowd. He had ramped up the festivities since Tide Point was his largest project to date and the flagship of his vision for a "Digital Harbor" that would make Baltimore the Silicon Valley of the East Coast. His brother Eccles, his partner Ted Rouse, Bob Tucker, and the then-Housing Commissioner Dan Henson (a former SBE&R Vice President) worked the crowd with equal enthusiasm. They were buoyed by SBE&R's 25th anniversary and the cosmic rise of an outfit that had started from the back of a pickup truck.

Tide Point was officially completed in 2001, just as the dot-com bubble burst reached its final crescendo, taking down the dream of a Digital Harbor with Tide Point as the startup and innovation hub of the digital age. Still, Struever managed to fill the 400,000 square feet of the Ivory, Dawn, and Cascade buildings, including with his own headquarters, making the repurposed factory designed by Design Collective a magnet for the gentrification of Locust Point.

Tide Point and waterfront promenade (Design Collective)

This momentum later included the development of Silo Point and developer Mark Sapperstein's McHenry Row. Tide Point shone like a beacon across the harbor, highly visible from Fells Point and any ship entering the Inner Harbor. It boasted its own deep-water shipping berth and a water taxi landing. Struever, always open to fun, even installed the largest water mister outside Disneyland along the waterfront promenade, which sparkled in many colors at night.

Exactly ten years after that extravagant party in 1999, Struever's company collapsed under a heavy mountain of debt, unpaid contractors, investor lawsuits, and abandoned projects in the wake of the 2007–2008 global financial crisis and the subsequent Great Recession. In late 2009, Struever's operations shut down entirely—construction, development, all of it. The ripples were felt far and wide, from Rochester to Durham and, of course, especially in Baltimore. Struever, who prides himself on having avoided bankruptcy by personally negotiating his debts, lost many friends in the process who were either not paid in full or not paid at all. Struever also lost Tide Point to Kevin Plank and Under Armour, the new rising star in Baltimore to whom he sold the campus to raise cash.

Soon enough, the sign on the roof no longer read "Tide Point" but "Under Armour." UA  grew by leaps and bounds and eventually filled the entire complex, save for the offices of Ayers Saint Gross (ASG) architects, who remained there enjoying direct views of the water and the daily proceedings of the Domino Sugar refinery next door. However, this is not the end of the story. In true Baltimore fashion, history rarely follows a straight upward trajectory.

Tide Point becomes Under Armour
(Philipsen)

Struever reemerged in 2010 with Cross Street Partners, once again pursuing urban development and the reuse of abandoned industrial complexes. Among these was the Hoen Lithograph building in East Baltimore, which reopened as the Center for Neighborhood Innovation (CNI)—a mixed-use tech and workforce hub anchored by Morgan State University, the ABC Greater Baltimore Construction Academy, and Cross Street Partners’ own offices. Meanwhile, Tide Point sits mostly vacant, with ASG as the lone remaining tenant slated to leave soon. What on earth had happened?

Plank, far from crashing, outgrew Tide Point—or so he thought—and set his eyes on Port Covington. He bought some 400 acres of land and had gigantic dreams sketched up by architects that made Baltimoreans rub their eyes. Digital Harbor was just a faint old dream; now there was "Plank-Town." It was to be nothing less than a brand-new city within a city, featuring high-rises towering over I-95, all anchored by Under Armour's own global headquarters campus to rival Nike or Adidas. Even a light rail extension was supposed to go there.

Yet, we all know what happened next in typical Baltimore fashion: another crisis clipped the wings of another high-flying star—COVID-19 and its aftermath. And as so often, Baltimore, a bit late to the party (biotech , digital startups, sports apparel) gets hit extra hard. The grand dream of a new city corporate empire fizzled as Under Armour's sales and revenues stagnated followed a steady stream of corporate reorganizations and rebranding efforts. 

Too late to withdraw entirely, Plank handed the broader Port Covington development over to his development partner Marc Weller (who also quit since) and concentrated on his much-slimmed-down headquarters campus. A million square feet of the envisioned mixed-use development outside the corporate campus was actually built on spec, but it remains only partially filled. ASG will soon move into one of these empty offices at what is now called Baltimore Peninsula.

Mc Henry Row, Locust Point (Philipsen)

This being "Smalltimore," Mark Sapperstein  swooped in, here as week, benefiting from Plank's massive infrastructure plans, just as he had from Struever's groundwork in Locust Point. Sapperstein bought and developed in record speed what used to be the Locke Insulator factory next to Nick's Fish House. Avoiding  fantastical or innovative concepts, he delivered practical, lucrative developments of apartments and townhomes that sell like hotcakes. 

Sapperstein also pursued  the purchase of  the mostly vacated Tide Point complex, but the deal collapsed in 2025. He only walked away with a small, off-campus parcel—the Cheer Building at 1450 Season Street—which he plans to raze for 122 townhomes, a fail-safe investment in the historic rowhouse city of Baltimore. 

Would Struever come back to seize this opportunity? I know it had been on his mind once. Sapperstein, meanwhile is back feeding off the fizzled Port Covington. More townhomes will go up there on land in which the UA successors are no longer interested. 

The rise and fall of Tide Point reveals many aspects of Baltimore's journey through history. Exuberance, failure, innovation, inequity and redirection. Through it all, a city like no other emerges, more battle proven, more cynical but also always hopeful that its day will come. 

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

Struever in front of Tide Point, not afraid of turbulent waters 
(Photo: AP)

$95 million No-Bid Design Contract Awarded for Key Bridge

Today I participated in one of the information boat rides the Maryland Transportation Authority MDTA organizes to keep the public informed about the Key Bridge reconstruction (Website). Baltimore County interim executive Kathy Klausmeier, Greater Baltimore Committee CEO Anthony Thomas, Senator Shelley Hettleman, and many others took the opportunity of sailing down Bear Creek from the docks of the Hard Yacht Cafe to get close to the worksite where the Key Bridge is supposed to rise again.

The yawning gap remains a constant reminder of what is missing
(Photo: Philipsen)

Most of this has been reported by media when they had first dibs for such a boat tour and little new has happened since Kiewit, the originally selected Design-Build contractor had been fired for lack of agreement on the final cost of the project. I reported about this several times before. 

However, Kiewit -during their two years on the job- developed a 70% design for the new bridge, had demolished some parts of the concrete approach ramps that had survived the bridge collapse, had constructed two work platforms constructed like a very low bridge ("trestle") in the shallower waters outside the shipping channel and parallel to the future bridge and drove the main piles that form the foundation for the future 400'  tall pylons that will hold up the anticipated cable stayed bridge. All this previously contracted work is now coming to an end, so MDTA is busy retaining new contractors. This time they are not looking for someone to design and construct all the work in one package; instead they decided to split up the remaining scope between the rest of the ncessary demolition, the construction of new, wider and longer approach ramps on the north and south side of the main span that has to fit in between the two new approach bridge portions.

The for me most interesting aspect of the regrouping effort revealed itself in a conversation I had with MDTA director Bruce Gartner on the side. He mentioned that MDTA has just hired the internationally know firm of ARUP in a giant sole-source design contract worth up to $95 million. The contract was approved by Maryland's Board of Public Works in their September 16th session, exactly two years after the original design-build firm Kiewit received their notice to proceed. 

On April 28, 2026, MDTA exercised the contractual off-ramp to terminate Kiewit’s involvement in the contract. MDTA is seeking to establish a contract directly with the structural design subconsultants that were previously contracted directly to Kiewit, along with several other key subconsultants. Given their prior involvement in the design phase of KB-4903-0000, this team of consultants is the only one capable of developing signed and sealed plans on an accelerated schedule. (BoPW agenda)

Arup was the structural engineer for Kiewit. Bringing back the fired general contractor's design consultant makes sense: They are prepared and know the 70% design like no other, since they had done it. They are probably really the only ones able to finish the design drawings quickly and put their stamp and seal on them. This allows the new contractors who will be selected for the main span and approaches over water to go rght into construction without worrying about the liability that would come from taking on incomplete designs from another entity. This should save time and probably also money.

However, a sole-source contract in this magnitude (i.e. without a competitive bid) is extremely unusual in the world of public works. and can only be justified in emergencies and if there is really only one entitity that can perform the work.  Even though I don't know how this was argued at the BoPW, it is likely that both of these reasons were given for going straight to Arup. It probably helped that the Kiewit team and their consultants had already been vetted when Kiewit was selected two years ago in a competitive process.

Nevertheless, two and a half years the sight of the still standing bridge abutments to nowhere and the only sign of a new bridge being several dozen mostly submerged steel piles is a bit disheartening. So far, there is also still no indication that the bridge will exhibit any visible innovation or enhancement that would make it authentically Baltimore and a new instantly recognizable landmark, i.e. something that is more than a plain vanilla cable stayed bridge. 

Progress on the "rebuild" project can now be seen at the online dashboard.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA 

Tuesday, July 21, 2026

The Key Bridge Saga Continues

Tuesday, November 18, 2025

The Bombshell News About the Key Bridge Rebuild

Thursday, July 4, 2024

The New Key Bridge - More Questions than Answers

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

A "Cathedral of American Infrastructure" - gone in a few seconds

Rendering of the new cable stayed bridge design with detaols of the bridge deck and pylon the support

 and protection structures

The rest of the bridge to nowhere will be demolished soon

Large water based cranes driving steel pipe piles into the muck

 until they meet rock

MDTA Director Bruce Gartner in conversation withAnthony Thomas of GBC

Overview of the envisioned bridge

The Key Bridge rebuild is MDTA's largest project ever

Good News Baltimore: Rash Field Now Complete

 I didn't make it to the grand opening but have peeked through the fence for months. So last Friday I walked down the promenade to see the Rash Field Phase 2 redesign which opens another chapter in Baltimore park design.

The new Rash Field Plan (Website)

Mahan Rykiel, the landscape architect and designer of, both, phase 1 and 2, a studio with engagements across the US and in several countries beyond  brings the latest trends in landscape urbanism to Baltimore. Could phase 2 be as successful as phase 1 which was an instant hit with kids, their parents, skate-borders and casual flaneurs strolling along the promenade?

The new Rash Field was handed over to the public last week in a ribbon cutting ceremony that was quite a bit delayed over original targets and clearly missed the big commemorative Sail 250 event with the tall ships that brought tens of thousands to the Inner Harbor.

The old Rash Field in 2018 (Cultural Landscape Foundation)

The renovated $18.5 million park has a bit for everyone: pickleball, beach volleyball, a fitness field, lawns, gardens, terraced seating, a nature walk, a Pride Memorial (the ship, not the LGBTQ community) and lots of sand. There is still a larger space for concerts, events, and community programming. 200 new trees will  eventually provide shade. There will also be a porch swing named for the late Marty Millspaugh, which I appreciate, since I worked with Marty at various points and miss his guidance and mentorship. The Waterfront Partnership and Baltimore Recreation and Parks will share the upkeep.

Phase 2 programming was not easy. What should a redesigned Rash Field offer? The original design was a robust field with some fairly massive sculptural concrete/stone  amphitheatre and a larger field. The six-acre public park opened in 1976 and was designed as a recreational space for the surrounding communities and open for a variety of events. The design by RTKL Archietcts  evolved over time, aside of being used as a staging area for large events, including state fairs and cultural festivals and the ice rink for some time it was also the home of popular beach volley ball. organized by a real club, Baltimore Beach. The park had several defined subareas and a few trees, but was largely considered undervalued and underutilized. Baltimore Mayors are always eager to update the Inner Harbor as a sustained attraction,. In 2013 Mayor Rawlings- Blake unveiled Inner Harbor 2.0, a master plan for the rejuvenation of the Inner Harbor that identified Rash Field as an opportunity but showed little more than a large green oval with a foot bridge to the pier on which the concert tent sits as the biggest attraction. Community input meetings produced many divergent ideas and ideals. Should the area cater to the surrounding neighborhoods or all of the city, or to tourists? Should it give beach volley ball as much prominence as the old Rash field had done or allow more activities that are seen as less "white". 

Pickle Ball at the Inner Harbor (Photo: Philipsen)

The resulting smorgasbord of offerings maybe a bit confusing with its many themes and materials. On eye level it lacks the obvious organizing element, even though the plan view shows that the event lawn facing the water is the major piece around which the various other zones are grouped. On the Friday when I visited, one day after the ribbon cutting, very few people had discovered the space yet, in spite of beautiful weather. 

Temporary signs posted within the area optimistically point to the Gensler designed BGE pavilion as a place where food and drinks could be had, but the windows were still covered with brown packing paper and the umbrellas a tables out front were only part of a Potemkin illusion. Time will tell if Baltimore adopts the new park as enthusiastically as it had taken over phase 1 with the skatepark. The ultimate litmus test will be if Baltimore has the resources to keep all of these nice things in good shape. Phase 1 and 2 together will cost multiple times more to keep attractive than the old Rash Field. As much as the new design is focussed on providing cooler and softer spaces and using sustainability standards for plant materials and stormwater management, resilience against abuse and wear didn't seem to be a top guiding principle. 

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

All photos below are from me.

Sand is the theme of an entire section

Lounging on the boardwalk

Dunes at the Inner Harbor

The Pride Memorial for the Pride of Baltimore and its crew

The event lawn facing the water is the major organizing space

The Nature walk looking towards Federal Hill

The BGE pavilion is still not occupied

Temporary signs guide the visitors

Nature walk looking towards downtown

The event lawn

Fitness Court

Beach volleyball courts

Will all this sand stay in place?

City DOT Remains on Shaky Ground

Until 2001 Baltimore didn't even have a department of transportation. Like in so many rural counties, transportation was rolled into the department of public works in a mindset that put pavement first and planning second.

Then in 2001 Mayor O'Malley in his quest to make the city more efficient created BC-DOT, a good move if one recognizes how important transportation is in a big city.

This was last year. 

In those 25 years BC-DOT stood up a city run transit system on land and water, embarked on a very ambitious act of bringing thousands of crosswalks and curb-cuts into compliance with ADA, adopt the execution of the council mandated Complete Streets legislation and issued a whole number of bike masterplans as well as a green network plan.

What all of these undertakings have in common is that they were implemented way slower than planned, in large part for lack of funding, but in no small part also for lack of an efficient internal organizational structure. 

In those 25 years the department had no less than 11 directors (including interim appointments and Frank Murphy whoheld the position twice). , for an average tenure of 2--1/4 years, often far less than that. Only the first director, Al Foxx had some staying power (9 years). 

Veronica McBeth (now Perry) the last person to leave certainly new the department well, she had been transit bureau chief there for four years taking over from Barry Robinson whose career ended when he was criminally charged for taking bribes in his role of running the Circulator bus. McBeth later changed to the Baltimore transportation consultant Kittelson for a stint and then worked for the federal department of transportation on policy matters before being appointed head of BC-DOT by Mayor Scott. 

But her tenure is ending this October after only 18 months and promising strides to get this office department control. Complete Streets, the bike masterplan and the curb cut fixes all remain ongoing tasks that are behind schedule just as some bridge reconstruction projects such as the Hanover Street bridge and the Russell Street viaduct. The press reporting about her departure points to her paving plans for Baltimore's pothole strewn streets as one of her successes.

Like many jurisdictions BC-DOT suffered from shortfalls in the so called highway user funds from the State which assist locals in maintaining their streets. The State legislature has restored some of these payments in recent years, but Baltimore which maintains all State highways inside its boundaries is still working down a giant backlog. Notably the Circulator and the water based Connector service have not only run without negative headlines under her reign but have been restructured and successfully gained riders. 

The resignation is part of ongoing upheaval across many departments of the Scott Administration, including Planning, HCD and BDC. Additional restructuring is yet to come.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

Baltimore's Transit Trap: Making the Same Mistake Over and Over

Here is a message for MTA's new transit administrator: Do not repeat past mistakes. 

It isn't news to anybody that very few people have a high opinion about Baltimore's transit, even though the system has a lot of stuff on the ground, including three rail modes and a large bus fleet.  MTA's two most recent Administrators couldn't help that poor image either, in spite of being young professional planners highly apt in the use of social media and coming from outside the usual pipeline of inside engineers or political appointees. 

Baltimore Transit: still a grade D on the annual report card.

So what are the real reasons for MTA's underperformance in terms of reliability and public perception? There are many, but I will focus on one most obvious to me, namely that the MTA has been building its system around what was easy to do and not what was needed: Political and physical convenience, trumped desirable outcomes. And we are about to do this again. Let me explain:

The original Metro line had a grand vision for a full system comparable to DC and San Francisco, two earlier examples for President Johnson's Great society public transit ambitions for America. But Baltimore was late in the game when both, ambition and funds had waned. As a result,  it got only half of  Atlanta's two line sister-system: One single line with later small extensions not connecting to a major feeder such as the airport in Atlanta's case. 

Baltimore Rail plan 2000

When Baltimore's ambitious Mayor Don Schaefer wanted more transit, it had to happen fast and in tandem with his plans for Oriole Park. So, instead of building more Metro and waiting for federal funds, he ordered a cheaper surface light rail line built largely on existing rail right-of-way. It was quick and cheap, but it also was a different technology that wasn't compatible with metro. Plus one one was surface and the other in a tunnel. So they didn't share a station. The two lines operated not as a system but "in loose formation" as former MDOT Secretary Porcari observed. It became a matter of public derision that Metro and LRT never truly connected or intersected at Lexington Market, even though the two systems were only a block apart. This is no small matter: Transits relies on connectivity and synergy, the services don't succeed individually but in concert and as a system.

When it was unavoidable to think about additional rail transit in Baltimore, then Mayor and Governor O'Malley and Secretary Porcari knew that a urgently needed new east-west line had to truly connect with the LRT and the Metro. That wasn't easy though, because LRT, even in a tunnel, isn't compatible with Metro. So the Red Line station at Charles Center was once again designed to be a block away from the Metro Station, but with both being underground, they were to be connected via a pedestrian tunnel. (The surface LRT station at Center Street would also a block away). But O'Malley didn't push as hard for his new line as "do-it-now" Schaefer had done for his and let the design process slide beyond his time in office. As a result the incoming Governor Hogan 

 Gov Hogan 2015: "the Red Line won't be built"
(Screenshot from the new documentary about the 
Red Line "Not in Service")

had an easy time to kill O'Malley's line as a "boondoggle" and pursue a cheaper and more convenient solution: Improvements to the existing bus transit. His heart wasn't really in it and he never allocated enough money to make the improvements stick, so the buses kept being unreliable.

Enter Governor Moore and his promise of reviving the killed "Red Line". His resuscitation, though, was built more on hope than available money. So the only funds were for some more design work and outreach in which essentially the same design as before was confirmed as most desirable or effective. Yet, the continued lack of money forces the Governor to look for convenient way out. Rumor has it that the way out also is the bus; named "BRT" or "bus-rapid-transit", a play with names (light rail being known as LRT), a system that has no chance of realizing the benefits of LRT, especially in an old city with narrow streets and without tunnel segments as -most likely- it will be proposed.

Circumstances now point to an emerging irony in which the errors of the past will not only be repeated but in a worse manner than before. All signs indicate that the Mayor's favorite developer MCB (the folks who want to redevelop HarborPlace) will get his way and the still to be announced "preferred alignment" for the dumbed down Red Line BRT will be on Pratt Street, not one, but two blocks away from the existing subway.

In short, instead of building out the existing Baltimore transit system by using LRT, Metro or even MARC (the commuter rail service), BRT will be tacked on as yet another mode, or, in the worst case, just as a glorified bus, i.e. nothing new at all. This would not only not fix anything about Baltimore's already disjointed transit system, it would make it even more disjointed.

Pratt Street between Charles and Light Streets
(Photo: Philipsen)

What should be done instead? The current MTA plans already include a plan for BMore Bus and money for the upgrade of the already operating Quicklink 40. It runs roughly on the Red Line alignment and stops near Metro. Keep it there. If the real Red Line can't be funded, why not be honest and just leave it at an upgraded Quicklink bus, call it BRT if you have to, but certainly don't run it on Pratt Street. Fund BMore Bus.

As far as rail service:  Improve intra city MARC service by adding stations on the Penn Line at Bayview and Broadway and maybe (more costly) at Penn and North. Give up on nonsense like Maglev from DC to Cherry Hill or a Tesla Hyperlink. Fix operations so that buses run on time. (The performance data dashboard shows current 73% on time performance, i.e. more than 1/4 of buses are more than 7 minutes late). 

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA  

The article has been corrected regarding the online performance dashboard