Community Architect Baltimore: The new Camden Station

Baltimore's Camden Station and its adjacent B&O warehouse have a storied history. The fame of the adjacent Oriole Park, taking advantage of the history, is legendary. The construction of a new intermodal station building for the MARC commuters and the Light Rail passengers arriving here for ballgames, transferring between the two rail services, disembarking for their daily work or boarding for the trip home is, therefore, a risky endeavor. One can debate if the now completed project is a "home run" as MDOT declares in its own press release, but it certainly close to it.

In 1992 when the intermodal station first opened alongside the stadium, there had been plans floated by Baltimore concrete mogul Swirnow to build medical trade mart above the tracks, back then dubbed "MedMart". Parkway/Swirnow held exclusive development rights for the interior of the historic Camden Station, the south end of the B&O; warehouse, and the air rights above a 6.5-acre tract east of the B&O warehouse. That project died after the 1992 deadline passed. MTA subsequently deferred building a permanent station structure in favor of a low cost temporary space-frame and modular building that should be kept in service for 27 years.

The new station building blends in and also holds its own. (Photo: Philipsen)

It is worth noting, that constructing a new station for rail service right next to the historic train station for which no sustainable permanent use has to been found, is in itself not a very convincing idea. The need arose because of vehicle egress requirements for the new ballpark necessitated moving the MARC and Light rail boarding functions around 300' south away from the historic station. Now Conway Street could cross the tracks and serve as a vehicular entry and exit.

The duplication of a station building in a historic setting because of car egress is a typical win of cars over pedestrians and transit. Yet, nobody seems to have found a better solution in all those years, and so, in 2017 a memorandum of agreement between the Stadium Authority (MSA) and MDOT outlined a new building with MSA carrying the project management cost of the project.

A new station in front of the historic station (Photo: Philipsen)

In 2017 the Board of Public Works awarded $30,000 for "pre-construction management services" to the Barton Marlow Company and the design work and construction management to AECOM, the world's largest architecture and engineering firm with a specialty in transportation and transit. The company has a Baltimore office. In 2018 a new station design was unveiled by MTA and AECOM and ground was broken. The light rail station was closed and bypassed for the duration of construction. MSA acted as the client and MTA as the owner. It was a very fast paced, “Construction Manager at-risk” project, according to project manager Paul Diez of AECOM. The firm also performed the civil and structural design services.

The completed design mercifully deviates from the concept sketches that MTA had developed before selecting a design team. The final design is simple and creates a pleasant mix of contextual and contextual design respecting the historic environment.. The contemporary elements give the building the "confidence" presence in needs in the large scale environment of the warehouse, the beginning freeway and the trains. Additionally, the station building has to be presentable from all four sides and even from above when seen from the upper floors of the warehouse. This isn't an easy task, given that the structure has to conceal an electrical substation, bathrooms and MTA staff service areas. The finished station succeeds in meeting these demands.

The hipped roof and clear-story is limited to the waiting area
(Photo: Kevin Lynch)

One can quibble with the fact that the double hipped roof with a clear-story band of windows (which provide additional daylight for the waiting room) has not been extended across the entire building. Now the building has a flat roof portion and a sloped metal roof, as well as the canopy roofs; too much for such a small structure. However, the massing and functionality of the low clear-story roof and the cantilevering roof canopy without the earlier row of columns and the stilted clear-story is far more convincing than the original concepts.

With $7,2 million construction cost the building is quite expensive for not being much bigger than a large single family home. The much larger Greyhound bus terminal costed only $8 million, however, it also looks cheaper. Investing in making an attractive and durable transit station is money well spent. We certainly don't see enough of it.

One can only wish that MTA's sister agency would consider turning the end of I-395 along Ca,den Yards into an urban boulevard that is an appropriate gateway into the City and pays due respect to the famous ballpark.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

MTA Press Release

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