Community Architect Baltimore: Railings at Harborplace?

It took exactly four years for the same request to be made by a grieving parent who had lost a son in the waters of the Inner Harbor after falling accidentally off the promenade. Nothing had happened in the interim.

David Thomas, whose 29-year-old son Evan Curbeam was found in November near Fells Point, said the city is not doing enough to protect people from falling in. He says railings and increased lighting are necessary. (SUN 2/28/2014)

“We’re here to advocate for some railings or guard rails around the harbor to make people aware of how dangerous it is,” Jim Schroeder said. “He fell into a trap that no human could have gotten out of without help. It's ridiculous that so many people have gone into those waters and lost their lives, and the city is sitting blindly by and not doing anything about it” (SUN 2/16/2018)

It is hard to see how the anguish of these parents could be once again completely ignored. But there are certainly also voices which say waterfront cities have had open water edges for millennia and which question that we really need railings at quay walls, piers and wharves. Not even the International Building Code requires guard rails at quaysides.

Unprotected quayside: Few ladders and life savers
(Photo: Philipsen)

A view underground may be instructive: For a hundred plus years subways have zipped into underground stations on tracks that are a good three feet below the platform and have a killer electric rail to boot. Those platforms are notoriously crowded, and sure enough, once in a while people go over the edge, sometimes with horrific consequences, often accompanied by heroic acts of people who lift the fallen back to safety. Have subways installed railings?

The answer is: Kind of. Indeed, most recent modern subways have completely walled off platforms with doors opening right where the train doors are at exactly the right location. No fall is possible. In Tokyo some old stations were even retrofitted.

Everyone has seen the glass walls in use at airport shuttles, but few know that many regular new subways have those doors as well, from New Delhi to Copenhagen and from Tokyo to Rome. In other words, one can't take for granted that was has worked for many decades will remain unchanged. An ever more protective society can easily get to a point where it doesn't find the traditional practice and standards acceptable any longer.

The challenge at the water's edge is of a different quality, though. Few will go to a train platform to experience the rush of trains entering a station but many people come to the waters edge to enjoy the open view and seeing the water without obstruction. Even more complicated than the complex psychology of man and the sea is the fact that the edge is frequently also the point of access to boats and ships of all types, sizes quite unlike the standard spacing of subway carriage doors. That is definitely the case at HarborPlace.

Unobtrusive railing at Tampa River Walk (Photo: Philipsen)

Still, there has been plenty of change which the Baltimore waterfront has undertaken in the last 50 or so years. What was once a working harbor has become a place of recreation, shopping and partying where people aren't only going during the daytime but also at night. Seafarers haven't always been sober but they were usually pretty healthy adults, used to the presence of the open water and its risks, a condition which is not always the case with the general public now crowding the Inner Harbor. Anyone who has ever walked HarborPlace with little children knows how hard it is to keep them safe and away from the dangerous edge and possible plunge into water that is not only freezing cold at times but also so unhealthy that a few gulps can bring about serious illness.

What can be done? An easy fix that has no downside, except a minimal cost, is the installation of additional ladders, more lifesaver rings and better lighting. Maybe there should be a tactile warning edge for the visually impaired. When it comes to railings, however, they would be limited to areas where no boats need to be boarded, the majority of the currently unprotected 5 mile waterfront promenade.

Protected subway platforms Tokyo

The railings of the HarborPlace pavilions were designed with nautical theme, their pipes and cables allow a pretty open view. They comply with the building code for guardrails. A similar design could also be used for the promenade wherever there are no ship landings and docking places.

A look around the world quickly reveals that waterfront railings are much more common than one would think and that the installation of railings on certain segments of Baltimore's premier tourist attraction would be much less disruptive than some may think. A task force convened by the Baltimore Waterfront Partnership could come up with a practical package of improvements that could save lives without detracting from what makes Baltimore's waterfront such a draw.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

SUN 2/16/18: Parents of man who died after falling into Baltimore's Inner Harbor want railings, other safety measures added
SUN 2/16/2014: Body found in Inner Harbor is ninth in recent months