Solo Gibbs Park is a 5.2 acre patch of grass with tennis and basketball courts, a baseball diamond a small rec center building and plus a splash pool, all hemmed in between the elevated I-395 and the historic black community of Sharp Leadenhall. The park is a kind of consolation price created when I-395 greatly diminished Baltimore's oldest African American community, Sharp Leadenhall.
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| A new splash pad in Solo Gibbs Park replaced a run down wading pool in 2013 (Photo: BC DRP) |
Over the years the park has seen many more aspirations and dreams than love and funding for improvements. 13 years after a Sahrp Leadenhall community masterplan recommended significant improvements, the park continues to languish in a not too impressive state. Raven stadium parking abuts the park under the I-395 viaduct and is currently and unattractive edge of the open space. Not all is bad: The closure of the rec center was averted when the police stopped running it as a PAL center and in spite of former Mayor Rawlings Blake's rec center strategy of fewer but better centers that had threatened this substandard facility. Solo Gibbs is run by the City, attempts of the community to run it under their own management were not successful. A new splash pad was installed in 2013.
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| Solo Gibbs Park and its current facilities |
In this situation one should think that the community would have leveraged the huge Caves Valley Partners (CVP) Stadium Square development with 650 apartments and 300,000 sqft of office space when it appeared on the horizon some three years back to the benefit of the park, especially since the developer needed approval for some zoning changes. A monetary infusion into the park via a public private partnership would have also followed one of the 2004 masterplan recommendations and realized some of the community dreams.
But the split Leadenhall community left it to CVP to recognize that a better park would serve their interest as well, at one point offering "to take it over". Two years ago (CVP) Caves Valley engaged the Baltimore firm of RK&K to explore options for a future park. As a result four program possibilities showed a menu of activities with and without a rec center and with baseball or football. Arsh Mirmiran of Caves Valley says that these options were offered in various community meetings "not as alternatives" but as "possibilities that one can mix and match". Those plans were made public earlier this summer as reported on the SouthBmore website:
Four concepts for the park have been released by RK&K Engineers, and Mirmiran said many conversations will take place with the community about the future of Solo Gibbs Park. Two of the designs include restoring the existing baseball field, and two include replacing it with a 1,200-seat football stadium with synthetic turf. In order to construct the football stadium, the existing Solo Gibbs Recreation Center would need to be demolished and replaced. In the plans, one proposed idea is to replace it with a new recreation center near W. Hamburg St. The other proposed idea is to convert Sharp-Leadenhall Elementary, which is scheduled to close in 2020 and which includes a pool, into the new recreation center. The splash pad would need to be relocated. (Kevin Lynch in SoutBmore.com on June 21, 17)
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| The small existing rec center |
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| Difficult vicinity |
This summer the Department of Recreation and Parks retained a consultant and begun preparing for a Solo Gibbs masterplan by forming a steering committee which includes stakeholders such as the community and also Caves Valley.
In a meeting on Monday that served the purpose to lay the groundwork for a cooperative process some community members expressed surprise about the Caves Valley concept plans. The Baltimore Brew had dispatched a reporter to the meeting, apparently alerted by some community members who saw Caves valley's ideas of including a dog-park and a football field as threats to their park. The Brew made their article sound as if CVP walked off in anger, but Caves Valley states that they will continue to participate in the future planning of the park and offering continued assistance in finding funding partners such as the Ravens or the Orioles and that nothing has been taken off the table. Several participants at Monday's meeting confirm that the event was a model for community participation, even if some still harbor suspicions.
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| One of the RKK concept plans showing a football field (SouthBmore.com) |
Baltimore City Recreation and Parks and their consultant Mahan Rykiel (MRA) vow to develop a "masterplan" concept together with the community and all stakeholders including Caves Valley, the Sharp Leadenhall Improvement Association, the South Baltimore Partnership and those in charge of some of the linkages such as the Gwynns Falls trail and the Hamburg Street light rail station.
MRA told me that there is no firm capital budget yet. A $1.4 million Casino Fund cash injection to Recreation and Parks was announced yesterday by the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership which oversees use the local casino impact grants and may help the department to fund the yet to be defined improvements.
According to Kevin Lynch of SoutBmore.com., CVP and the Leadenhall Baptist Church had filed jointly for funding earlier this year. A $10,000 grant funds Leadenhall's "Partnership" group to support environmental stewardship.
The use of community impact money collected from gambling proceeds to generally support an underfunded city department such as Recreation and Parks deserves scrutiny. Maybe that could be a Brew story.
Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
SouthBmore.com: Caves Valley teaming up with Sharp Leadenhall on Solo Gibbs
Philipsen's architectural firm ArchPlan Inc. worked in various capacities in Sharp Leadenhall on housing rehabilitation and new construction and on various feasibility studies for an addition to the Solo Gibbs rec center and a new community center and history museum.
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