Chambers Building on Charles Street: Demolition and then what?

Baltimore has a rich experience with projects that were promised and then not delivered. This history is accompanied by a slew of surface parking lots in lieu of the historic structures that were demolished on account of the wonderful new things that were promised but never materialized.

The rear view from Morton Street.

We lost landmarks like the Southern Hotel, the News American and the McCormick Spice company this way, all of which yet again lure with proposed development. At the Mechanic Theater demolition is still in progress and it remains unclear if we will see another parking lot here or actually proceed straight to new construction

The Chambers Building as seen from Charles Street

The latest in the row of demolitions with murky prospects is the Chambers Building in the 1000 block of N. Charles Street, very near where the Hippo is supposed to become a CVS. The building's name derives from Howard Chambers who had owned the building and sold it when a 35 apartment project couldn't get funding.

The owner of the building owns also the adjacent forever parking lot (who recalls what was once on it?) and is nobody less than Kingdon Gould, a man one could call a "gravel mogul" who has promised forever the new town of Konterra south of Laurel on the lands of his extensive gravel pit land holdings. If you don't know Konterra, you are not alone, this new town did not yet materialize although it has been on the map at least since 1990.

With such an owner, we can't wait to see what will happen on Charles Street, where the man owns not only one but two larger properties.

In the meantime, if you care, make your voices heard to Planning, BDC and the Downtown Partnership so we will look at something nicer than an extended parking lot here.

It doesn't help that the new zoning code is still not in effect. If all goes well, it will have provisions about demolition and surface lots, which will make them a prohibited use.

update:
Thanks to Facebook comments from friends I have this additional information: 

• Previous design by Parameter/ Chris Pfaeffle that incorporated the existing building.
• Chambers, the interior design firm. (Link).
• The architect of the current building to be demolished was Charles Richter. Ed Gunts reported on the occasion of CHAP considering the demolition on Oct 8, 2007:

Distinguished by a series of arched openings, the brick building was designed by Charles Richter, architect of the Peabody Library and the Lyric Opera House's 1980s lobby and Mount Royal Avenue facade, and constructed in 1964.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
photos: ArchPlan Inc.

BBJ article 2014 about the site
the detailed history can be seen in Ed Gunts" Baltimore Brew Story

Can the city become a place of makers again?

We usually talk about "disruptive" technologies in terms of how they may upend traditional business models. What if the new technologies also disrupt the seemingly intractable societal models of "inner city poverty",  "suburbanization of jobs"  and the disconnect of where low skill people live and where low skill jobs are? Exhibit 1: Open Works Baltimore. 

"We see it as a platform for people to realize their dreams,” Holman said. “Teach a man to 3-D print, he might have a job in five or six years. Teach a man to weld and he might walk into a mechanic shop and have a job tomorrow.” (Will Holman project coordinator of Open Works Baltimore).

The new Open Works, rendering by Cho Benn Holback/Younts Design

Open Works will provide a  $10 million dollar 34,000 sqft opportunity facility in the heavily dis invested Greenmount Ave corridor at the edge of the Station North Arts District. Who says the days of making suff in Baltimore is a thing of the past? 

Cho Benn Holback is the architect. 

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

See BBJ article:

Site of the new Open Works facility at Greenmount and Oliver Streets (photo: ArchPlan)

Red Line Now! group proves: Red Line will create jobs

The new secretary of transportation, Pete Rahn had listened to the transit advocacy group Red Line Now intently and with interest. In the end he gave the group what one can call a fools errand: Show me the actual jobs that the Red Line creates and that wouldn't be there without it. And he didn't mean the construction jobs or the transit operators, but jobs that would come to Baltimore because of better transit.

Of course, nobody can deliver on that request because hardly any developer has said, I come only with the Red Line, let alone have any developers or companies committed to a certain number of jobs should the transit line be realized. Not with that being at least eight years away, even if all goes by schedule.

Add caption

Still, Red Line Now produced a very convincing document that names specific developments, specific investors and developers and quotes their desire to see this line being built. There is no denying that the welfare of this entire metro region will depend on a competitive transit system. The issue isn't really what the line costs or how many jobs it will directly create, the issue is if this area can continue to be attractive to residents and businesses alike if the transportation and the transit system remain sub-par.

This is what Grant Corley of Red Line Now! wrote in his transmittal letter to Rahn:

On the following pages, you will find data for more than 30 projects
along the Red Line corridor, which we have informally gathered
to the best of our ability and knowledge. Our information
was collected by speaking with developers, contacting local institutions
such as the Downtown Partnership, and researching developments
in the local business news. Therefore, while we cannot
claim this to be a scientific or all-inclusive survey, it does help
capture the temperature of development and economic activity
along the corridor.
In total, we have identified at least 6.5 million square feet of developments
new, planned, and in progress along the Red Line
corridor—representing at least 12,000 construction jobs, 10,000
permanent jobs, and more than $3 billion in private investment.
We cannot guarantee how many of these jobs are directly contingent
upon the completion of the Red Line; we cannot see into
the future. However, we can say confidently that the long-term
economic impact of the Red Line goes far beyond specific projects
in planning or construction today. Furthermore, the tendency of
quality transit to encourage greater density and agglomeration of
jobs, residences, and amenities around existing hubs is well known.
That’s why we urge you, in making your decision, to consider
the broader context of mobility, congestion and job access issues
addressed by the Red Line. A narrow focus on “but for” jobs is
simply not enough, and is not the reason we invest in new transportation
infrastructure—whether it be roads or transit.

Add caption

Wise words.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

I have been a consultant for the Red Line project since its inception in 2002 and was most recently part of a team looking at community development, station area planning and land use. This work has been suspended since January awaiting a decision by the new governor regarding this project and the Washington area Purple Line

Just in time: A Regional Plan to Connect People

"Opportunity Collaborative", an initiative funded by a $3.5 million federal grant and coordinated by BMC includes public agencies and non-profits and is the Baltimore area's regional response to the innovative grant program further described below.

The co-chairs of the Collaborative are William H. Cole IV, president and CEO of the Baltimore Development Corporation, and Scot T. Spencer, of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. 

Although there were 74 other regions in the U.S. which  received grant money, only 10% of the original applications were funded.  Baltimore's grant is one of the largest.

This is the first time in decades that the Feds provided such an urban program, according to HUD community development director Harriet Tregoning. 

Michael Kelly, Scott Spencer and Bill Cole
respond to questions about the report. 

The Baltimore area Collaborative looked at three topic areas: Workforce, Housing and Transportation for our  2.7 million resident region. Today the Baltimore Regional Plan for Sustainable Development (RPSD) was released to the public during a gathering at the Baltimore Museum of Industry.

During an interview on WYPR this morning Michael Kelly, responsible staff person at BMC and Bill Cole of BDC spoke about the importance of their three year effort.

Kelly said that "coordination between the right people is at the core of this plan". The press release for the event promises that [the plan] "will help the Baltimore region coordinate investments in housing, transportation and workforce development to reduce disparities and connect all of our citizens to a prosperous future". In light of the recent focus on disparities, interest in the Opportunity Collaborative's work has grown and the release of the complete report is timely.

Kelly observed that the plan provides a "comprehensive menu of options" for change. "Resources are shrinking everywhere, which makes it even more important that we coordinate". We need "wrap- around services" and not only solve one problem at a time, not just child care, not just transportation, not just skills but all of the wrapped into one.

regional Stats and trends

William Cole who started his work on the board as a city council person before he was appointed to become the CEO of BDC noted that "the areas we need to focus on as a city are not surprisingly the same for the region as well". "We have a hard time getting residents to the job centers under 90 minutes", often times we have "last mile issues".  Cole dmenaded that the regional conversation needs to "create an interconnected public transportation system. Connected  places are places where more businesses want to be" he said during the interview.

At the opening State Senator Ferguson commented that we know the problem and asked: "do we have the courage to act?" Towards action some parts of the grant have been award to a total of 15 "demonstration projects" to date. 

Even though our region has the 4th highest per capita income and growing diversity and concentrations of poverty are decreasing,  the gap between areas of opportunity and those without remains and sometimes becomes stronger. 

The report provides a menu of options in the three focus areas for how to proceed in opportunity corridors and offers funding guidance as well. 

One of the questions from the audience was if job training should not also foster entrepreneurship instead of just working for others. Bill Cole responded that the Mayor doubled the budget for small business support. 

Marsha MCLaughlin asked how the business community can become engaged. Michael Kelly: "we have the attention of the business community right now".

Harriet Tregoning, Director of the HUD Office of Community Development closed the event with a reminder that it is such a good coincidence that this report with its systemic solutions could be released only six weeks after the Baltimore "events". This program has nurtured leadership and fought HUD to look at community again. She observed that the unrest was not a Sandtown problem and that Sandtown was not an anamoly but could have happened in many other communities. "You have momentum" Tregoning exclaimed, look it as a "commencement event". She noted that the West Baltimore MARC station was already designated as a federal "Ladders of Opportunity Areas". 

The real question, however, will be this: Will The Baltimore Metropolitan Council, largely a tiger without teeth,  have the force to get anything implemented, or better, will local government actually be wise enough to implement the recommendations, even though several of the regional members really don't care about the core of the region as long as their counties still thrive. Short-term that is, since long-term no region can thrive without a strong core and would affect everybody, even those a bit further out. 

The full report can be found here.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

Speaker Senator Bill Ferguson addresses the crowd
in front of the backdrop of Baltimore's
"old industries" (Domino Sugar)

Links:

BBJ article about the event

Dan Rodrick's Sun column

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-rodricks-0609-20150608-column.html

The Federal Sustainable Community grant program was announced in 2010 and described this way:

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 (Public Law 111-117, approved December 16, 2009) (Appropriations Act), provided a total of $150,000,000 to HUD for a Sustainable Communities Initiative to improve regional planning efforts that integrate housing and transportation decisions, and increase the capacity to improve land use and zoning. Of that total, $100,000,000 is available for the Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program, $40,000,000 is available for the Challenge Planning Grant Program, and $10,000,000 is available for a joint HUD and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) research and evaluation effort. The Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program will support metropolitan and multijurisdictional planning efforts that integrate housing, land use, economic and workforce development, transportation, and infrastructure investments in a manner that empowers jurisdictions to consider the interdependent challenges of: (1) economic competitiveness and revitalization; (2) social equity, inclusion, and access to opportunity; (3) energy use and climate change; and (4) public health and environmental impact. (Notice of Finding Availability).

Modernism is alive and well in Germany

Modernism is still a step away from being a cherished architectural style in the US. Possibly it will never get there. 

As this book shows, modernism still has to fight misconceptions and wrong information that lays all the blame for the failings of the modern city at its doorstep.
As Architectural Record book reviewer Jayne Merkel writes:

Two multi-generational 12 family units won a honorable
mention at the 2015 German Architecture Prize. They are located in
Stuttgart Killesberg

Nothing led to the disillusion with modern architecture during the postmodern era more than the critique of public housing....But, as several studies in the new book Public Housing Myths show, the problem was not the high-rise so much as well-intentioned social policy.

In stark contrast to American skepticism towards modernism, Germans never abandoned it, especially not its elite architects or those consider themselves as such. 

Take this year's design awards: As Baunetz, a German architectural online daily sees it, the award winning designs of this years Deutscher Architekturpreis "are a ray of light in the sea of German architectural bleakness". 

The rays of light are all decidedly modern.(You can click the links in the German list of award winners below to find out by yourself).

German design architects still cherish austere and stark
geometry and the materiality of exposed concrete. In the
background is a mixed use TOD center with shopping
facilities and subway transit

One of the winners is a multi-generational housing group of two multifamily buildings overlooking an new park created on the grounds that used to be the Stuttgarter Messe on Killesberg one of Stuttgart's posher quarters. Stuttgart is an industrial German City (home of Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Bosch and also my birthplace). 

The Architects of the award winning project are the local Stuttgart firm of Bottega und Ehrhardt Architekten. The housing is as modern as the shopping center on the other side of the park (visible in one of the photos) and the retirement home Augustinum, also part of the trade area rebirth. (See my blog article about that facility here).

The multi generational housing is stark modern, in and out

The strictly modern style of the large scale redevelopment of the former convention and trade center area can be explained by the proximity of Weissenhof, the modernist international building exhibit that was held in 1927 in Stuttgart and recently restored to its former beauty after taking severe hits first by Hitler's distaste for modernism as "degenerate art" and then by allied bombing that followed. 

Still, any German architect with any design aspiration would rather be dead than be caught

imitating ornate historical styles with fake foam cornices or the like. That is not to say that any typical German subdivision is any more attractive than their American counterpart, quite the contrary As  Baunetz said, the norm is architectural bleakness, and that holds true here on both sides of the Atlantic. It's the beacons of light we define differently.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

I have seen those award winning buildings, the park, the new transit oriented mixed use shopping, and housing center  and the retirement go up and walked there several times. I do like the buildings but don't think that the landscape architecture and open space design are any good, both failing many of the central tenets of "place making".

The new park is unimaginative, the bermed lawns
hard to maintain, the trees or pathways don't create
spaces, this is very disappointing in light of the beauty
of the adjacent historic Killesberg Hoehenpark

Below the Baunetz notification about the 2015 German Architekturpreis in its native German text:

Vor einem Jahr etwa haben Bottega + Ehrhardt Architekten diese Wohnanlage am Stuttgarter Killesberg fertig gestellt. 2015 erhielt das Projekt nun die Anerkennung des Deutschen Architekturpreises. Zwei Gebäude für eine selbstinitiierte Baugruppe stellen sich hier auf die Bedürfnisse des Mehrgenerationenwohnens ein – mit Gemeinschaftsflächen, Gärten, Dachterrasse und einer Werkstatt.

Die Wohnungsgrundrisse bilden die Basis für eine Vielfalt von Lebensstilen und Altersgruppen: 68 bis 160 Quadratmeter sind die insgesamt zwölf Wohnungen groß. Sie kommen in zwei Volumen auf vier Etagen unter, die durch ein Untergeschoss mit 22 Stellplätzen verbunden sind. Die kubischen, klaren Formen werden durch eine geometrische Anordnung der dunkelgrauen Eternitplatten an der Fassade unterstrichen.

So glatt die Oberfläche der Fassade, so uneben die Struktur der beiden Häuser: Tief eingeschnittene Terrassen wechseln sich ab mit auskragenden Balkonen und sollen die beiden Kuben visuell durch eine Art Relief auflockern. Raumhohe Fenster öffnen zusätzlich zu der unebenen Struktur die Anlage, die möglicherweise sonst etwas düster im Grün des Killesbergs daherkommen würde.

Fotos: David Franck

Deutscher Architekturpreis 2015 (30.000 Euro):

• Immanuelkirche und Gemeindezentrum in Köln
  Sauerbruch Hutton, Berlin 


Auszeichnungen (4.000 Euro):

• Generalsanierung und Aufstockung Wohnhochhaus in Pforzheim
  Freivogel-Architekten, Ludwigsburg
• Am Lokdepot, Berlin
  ROBERTNEUN Architekten GmbH, Berlin
• Neue Ortsmitte Wettstetten 
  Bembe Dellinger Architekten und Stadtplaner GmbH, Greifenberg
• Konzerthaus Blaibach (Oberfalz)
  Peter Haimerl Studio für Architektur, München
• Technische Universität Chemnitz – Weinholdbau
  Burger Rudacs Architekten, München

Anerkennungen (1.250 Euro):

• ANTIVILLA Umnutzung eines Lagergebäudes in ein Wohn- und Ateliergebäude, Berlin
  Brandlhuber + Emde, Schneider Architektengesellschaft mbH, Berlin
• Ulrich-Gabler-Haus, Lübeck
  Konermann + Siegmund Architekten bda, Stadtplaner, Lübeck
• evihab-DLR-Institut für Luft- und Raumfahrtmedizin, Köln 

  Glass Kramer Löbbert bda, Ges. v. Architekten mbH, Berlin
  mit Uta Graff Architektin BDA, München
• One Man Sauna – Nichtstun in Bochum 
  modulorbeat-Marc Günnewig und Jan Kampshoff, Münster
• Sanierung und Umnutzung des denkmalgeschützten Forschungszentrums für Biodiversität & Klima, Frankfurt am Main
  Architektenbüro SSP SchürmannSpannel AG, Bochum
• Neue Meisterhäuser Dessau 
  Piero Bruno, Donatella Fioretti, Pepe Marquez, Berlin
• Bundesverfassungsgericht Karlsruhe
  Staatliches Hochbauamt Karlsruhe und Assem Architekten Karlsruhe
• Wohnungsbebauung Baugruppe BF 30, Stuttgart
  Bottega + Ehrhardt Architekten GmbH, Stuttgart

Der Deutsche Architekturpreis wird seit 1971 vergeben. Wie schon 2011 und 2013 wurde der wichtigste Staatspreis für Architektur gemeinsam durch das Bundesbauministerium und die Bundesarchitektenkammer e.V. ausgelobt. Das Wettbewerbsverfahren wurde vom Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung durchgeführt. 

Die Preisverleihung findet am 12. Oktober 2015 im Anschluss an den Deutschen Architektentag im Schloss Herrenhausen in Hannover statt. (jk)

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

Source Link: Baunetz

Former Mayor Schmoke: Baltimore moving in the right direction

Schmoke was Baltimore's Mayor in one of the city's most difficult phases, in a time of massive urban flight and record crime. Schmoke grew up in West Baltimore and is today is president of the University of Baltimore.

 With this span of local experience he was a natural "go to" person for National Public Radio who announced the interview with the former mayor with great fanfare but ultimately broadcast only a short segment. "In urban America" he said, "there is no final victory". The interviewer found Schmoke's "level positivity striking" when he noted that on that Monday of riots most high schoolers went home and not across the street looting. In closing he said that he sees Baltimore "moving in the right direction". In an audio trailer announcing his interview Schmoke also demanded to "close the skill gap".

Schmoke at the groundbreaking of  the HOPE III
"Nehemiah" rowhouse rehab in 1994  (ArchPlan
photo)

In his time as mayor (1987-1999) Schmoke had partnered with Jim Rouse in the efforts of rescuing Sandtown-Winchester, notably with HOPE III federal funds which were used for large scale rowhouse rehabilitation. The write-downs from the actual cost to the subsidized sales prices were so substantial that even large federal programs were not more than a drop in the bucket of abandonment in Sandtown Winchester, an area hard hit by urban flight. Schmoke: [there were "dislocations in the economy...Whites were moving out and then the black middle class started moving out". His rehabilitation program involved local churches and BUILD (Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development), an organization still active. Today many see the $150 or so million invested in Sandtown largely as a failure, although this is debatable since nobody could know the extent of devastation in Sandtown without those programs.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

I worked as architect of record on about 200 rowhouse rehabs in Sandtown and East Baltimore as part of the federal HOPE III program. The AIA Urban Design committee conducted townhall meetings during Schmoke's time as Mayor.

Schmoke being thanked by me at a 1998 AIA
Workshop (AIA photo)

Schmoke and current Mayor Rawlings Blake during
Schmoke's investiture as UB president (SUN photo)

NPR Link

Another Politician awestruck by Maglev: Hogan in Asia

Maybe Governor Hogan switched allegiance from his fellow Governor Chris Christie (the one who the Hudson rail tunnel and returned its federal funding portion) to former Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania, (the one who on occasion of a trinket trip to ride Maglev trains in Japan exclaimed):

It is time for America to do something big and something great. I got off that train and said, 'We've got to do this"  

So it seems according to this report from WAMU, Washington's public radio station and a press release from MDOT.
The idea of such a train between DC and Baltimore is old as well. It recycles like locust, just in shorter intervals.

Hogan and his wife visibly awestruck by high speed public transport
(Washington Post photo)

Hogan in China: on a stop during his current trip 

Hogan is  the last one in a long row of gullible politicians who falls for the sexy magnetically levitated trains that have populated the dream world of train enthusiasts for more than four decades. Here what he had to say after his 312mph ride:

“One of the beautiful things about this technology is that kind of accident [like the one in Phildadelphia] couldn’t happen,” said Gov. Larry Hogan, after taking a test ride on Japan’s magnetic-levitation train. He called the ride at 505 kilometers per hour (314 miles an hour) “much safer than anything we’re doing in the U.S.”

“There’s no question that this is the future of transportation, it’s incredibly transformative in terms of what it could do for the economy of our region and our state.”

According to his MDOT press release he also said this:

 “Exploring this new Maglev technology between Baltimore and Washington represents a huge transportation and economic development opportunity for Maryland," said Governor Hogan. "I’d like to thank Prime Minister Abe and officials with JR Central for their leadership and support of this initiative.” 

Oh man! We should send you to Stuttgart, Frankfurt or Seattle, all thriving cities that have invested in light rail running surface in the outer areas and in tunnels under downtown, just like the proposed Red Line!

Light Rail Stuttgart

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

Links:
WSJ report about Hogan's Maglev ride
BBJ about Hogan's funding application

Maryland's governor thinks the Purple Line is too expensive, but wants to build a $10 billion maglev. Huh?

In 2013 I wrote the below article on the occasion of yet another party trip that politicians had undertaken to see futuristic trains since there isn't much to look at back in the US in this department


Here some text from my 2013 article: Why MagLev May Not Be The Answer

This new "short hop" marketing angle as a kind of short-range surface-jet is also the mother of  the recycled idea of a Baltimore-Washington Maglev pilot project. With Transrapid as a parent the idea had just gained enough uplift to get a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) completed.  This was in 2003. Then, as so many times before, the idea fizzled until nobody here mentioned Maglev anymore. Instead, Amtrak developed a masterplan for highspeed rail improvements for its lucrative Northeast corridor and MTA Maryland engaged in a MARC commuter train improvement plan for better connections to the District. Meanwhile China, the Country most ambitious in high speed trains set its investments all on the good old steel rail.

Corridor Study Baltimore DC

So now in 2013, it is back to the future: Maglev to DC is once again in the news from the Baltimore SUN, to the New York Times and the Economist, this time, though, the future speaks Japanese. The Japanese technology, too dates back as far as the 1960ties but it is more advanced than the Transrapid, with superconducting magnets and a guideway in form of a channel rather than a T. Once more the promise of Baltimore to DC in under 10 minutes and the famous one hour ride from Baltimore to new York let hearts beat faster, especially the hearts of a league of former transportation and government officials and media representatives who got to ride the magic train on a November Saturday. "Game changer" they whisper and forget all the reasons why US transportation is in such dire straits.

Governors Rendell and Pataki participated in the high tech tourism, and, of course, they were ecstatic, they are board members of the Japanese Consortium TNEM after all....
So can Maglev, German or Japanese, be the prince that turns the Baltimore frog  into a princess again?

My answer than and now is no to Maglev, for these reasons:

• Maglev, largely in tunnel, costs too much (twice as much as regular high speed rail), requiring ticket prices that are too high for a mass market as it is needed to support construction and operation

• Magnetic levitation is a technology where fleet and operating system are entirely incompatible with anything running anywhere. This requires a brand-new support system from scratch for everything. Several items necessary for large scale operation such as switches and ice built up on guide-ways are still considered risky by some experts, especially with the small Japanese tolerances. (Ice and snow is supposed to be combated with warm sprinklers!).

• Maglev is geared towards high speed operation on longer distances. It makes little sense on short distances, Shanghai's airport shuttle has already shown that.

• Demand on the Northeast Corridor isn't concentrated in city centers. In the typical fashion of US metropolitan areas, jobs and households are spread out  across many nodes and clusters. Between DC and Baltimore those include New Carrolton, Odenton and BWI, even Halethorpe and going north to NYC there are many more points that cannot be easily skipped without losing significant ridership. These points are best served with regular commuter trains because maximum speed is less the issue than convenient access.

• Maglev's guideways are bulky and ugly. They require complete isolation from anything at grade and, due to the desired high speed, usually cannot use any of the historically available right of ways, an issue that even conventional HSR is battling to some extent, even though conventional HSR can slip back onto existing lines and stations at critical points.

• Maglev would significantly detract from upgrading existing Amtrak and commuter train services. Even if Maglev would be built all the way to the Big Apple, it would still not serve Boston, Richmond, or Miami,  all serviced by Amtrak which can gradually improve.

• The fixation on new technology and speed to the detriment of access, connectivity and existing communities is an "old school" approach to solving problems with big, expensive and top down solutions reminiscent of the craze to extend freeways through city centers, large scale urban renewal, super high rises, fusion reactors and similarly destructive approaches where unintended consequences outweighed the benefits and often turned the dream into a nightmare.  

Hogan is one in a long line of politicians falling for
sexy technology

at the time I concluded my article this way:

Maglev offers no continuum, no incremental implementation and no solution for our cash starved infrastructure. Maglev requires the climber  who wants to scale the mountain of the transportation problem not only to go back to the base station but also to move to the other, steeper side of the mountain. How much easier, even if not as intellectually stimulating is it to continue the climb on the existing path.
No matter how technologically attractive linear induction motors are to engineers, or travelling politicians, reality poses some real big hurdles, as boring as this may be. Maglev instead of being the future may well be the past, the same past of technological bulkiness that brought us nuclear power and kept fusion reactors out of reach. Maglev is likely not the answer, neither for global transportation nor for the renaissance of Baltimore, home of America's first passenger rail service. 

Luxury in the Ailing City

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake rushed from the ribbon cutting at the Ivory, Baltimore's most expensive boutique hotel on Calvert Street to the groundbreaking of the Anthem House which promises to become Baltimore's swankiest apartment building yet.

(Anthem, get it, with Fort McHenry nearby? A rendition was provided at the groundbreaking). 

The Mayor called Baltimore the "most invisible economic opportunity in the country".  

Developers Tom and Toby Bozzuto, with Kevin Plank (right)

In a way it is comforting to know that these projects are still going on, both Azola Development and Bozzuto have made valuable contributions to Baltimore's urban life. Yet, there is a feeling of unease not unlike ordering a decadent chocolate cake on the Titanic  after just hearing the rumble of the ship scraping that iceberg.

Tom Bozzuto, keenly aware of this, immediately alluded to this in his speech. 

"This is not a time to turn our back on this city," he said. Instead we stand firm and committed. He also noted his firm's many non profit and affordable housing projects. He took the recent high price sale of Union Wharf as a testament that Baltimore is recognized as an equal. His son Toby, project manager for the project spoke of the choice between creating or destroying and noted architecture as part of creating. 

Scott Plank mentioned how land assembler Solstice had approached him to do a project at the gateway to Locust Point on the former GE site, by many considered to be a brownfield forever. He described Locust Point as  historically "a company town" referring to the past industries such as Proctor and Gamble. In that vein Under Armour will build a fitness center to the Francis Scott Key school. 

Anthem House in Locust Point at Fort Avenue

Bozzuto's apartment buildings offer ample amenities

At any rate, the Anthem house promises to be spectacular. According to the Bozzuto website it will have nine stories and 292 upscale residences with 20,000 square feet of retail, and, always a concern in Baltimore: ample parking. The complex will be branded around a health and wellness lifestyle theme with among other things an acre of green roof and a fitness suite.

Toby Bozzuto who set new apartment design standards first with the Fitzgerald on Mount Royal Avenue and then the Union Wharf complex in Fells Point envisions his latest endeavor as a "world-class gateway to [the] Locust Point waterfront".

According to an earlier BBJ article Bozzuto gears the Anthem house towards empty nesters:

The largest apartments would include two bedrooms and a den, leaving enough space for visiting family members and appealing to people “who want space for their stuff,” Bozzuto President Toby Bozzuto said.

“I think empty nesters are used to living in larger homes than a condo or an apartment, and they often downsize into a condo,” Bozzuto said. “We are seeing an increasing trend — though not a major trend — that some empty nesters are interested in downtown living, and we’re beginning to see that some of those people would like to rent versus buy.”

Work is already underway on the site

Bozzuto is a partner with Warhorse, a development company of Scott Plank. Scott is the brother of Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour, who also formed a horse themed development company named Sagamore. Solstice is also a partner and brought the assembled site to the table. 

The architect is Rohid Anand of the KTGY Group in Tysons, VA. 

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

BBJ report of the groundbreaking. 

Baltimore officials call on developers to follow Bozzuto's lead as Locust Point apartment project begins

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/blog/real-estate/2015/06/baltimore-officials-call-on-developers-to-follow.html

Stu Sirota named Assistant Planning Secretary

Stuart Sirota, known for his online communication group and website Envision Baltimore has been named Assistant Planning Secretary by Secretary Craig today.
This the official announcement from MDP:

Stuart Sirota

Today. Secretary Craig named Stuart "Stu" Sirota, Assistant Secretary of Planning Services. Sirota will lead the agency’s Planning Services division, which provides technical services to support planning to Maryland’s county and municipal governments. His first day is June 3.  Stu comes to the department with 29 years of experience as a professional planner, having served as the principal of TND Planning Group, the consulting practice he founded in 2005.  Over the past decade, he has been recognized for his work in transformative planning and design for urban, suburban, and rural communities throughout Maryland and the U.S. Mr. Sirota has provided planning and implementation expertise to a diverse client base that has included local and state government, non-profit organizations and real estate developers. Highlights from his recent work include: developing strategies for preserving and revitalizing Port Tobacco in Charles County; working with economists to identify near term redevelopment opportunities around the West Baltimore MARC Station; and providing in-house project management of multiple planning studies at the New Castle County (DE) Department of Land Use.

 Stuart, a stout New Urbanist, has a very good understanding of Baltimore City, the region and urban design. He was involved in many planning charrettes and efforts to make our city and region more people friendly. His services have been always strong on community engagement and participation. He is ideally suited to guide the planning assistance program the department provides to the smaller towns and jurisdictions that have little or no planning capacity on their own.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

  

Striving for Development Excellence in Baltimore County

Once again dozens and dozens of Baltimore County residents had to pack a hearing to testify for the obvious: That open space is needed, especially where large new developments occur, as in the case of Towson.

The current Baltimore County regulations require each  developer to provide a certain amount of open space for each dwelling unit. Should a developer not be able to find that space on his own site, developers can opt for the "waiver fee" option in which they currently pay based on the zoning in which the development takes place.

The rub: The fees are not consistently collected, there is no transparency about what is collected from whom or what the money is used for. The most contentious item is that large developers who do Planned Unit Developments (PUD) do not pay at all if the PUD area was originally zoned commercial or industrial but now includes residential units. Developers in the town-center district of Towson (CT) are also exempted and so are student housing, elderly housing and others in a convoluted set of rules that is neither fair, nor transparent, nor logical.

In 2013 the County administration was asked by the council to analyze the rules, the fees and propose a better structure. Finally, in March the report came out, and to everybody's dismay suggested to keep all the fees just as they are.
This, unfortunately appears to be the result of pressure from the larger developers who apparently think they would be better off to not provide quality open space in Towson and still be able to achieve a quality community. If they think they can copy from Bethesda, MD, they better think twice. Montgomery County has quite good open space provisions and intentions to do even better in the future.

As president of NeighborSpace I testified today on the organization's main points:

A.      Replace an overly complex, zoning-based fee schedule with a simpler schedule related to the relative need for open space and the cost of providing it (See Figure 1);

B.      Ensure that all types of residential development projects bear a responsibility for providing open space or paying a fee in lieu thereof;

C.      Establish a process for assessing, collecting and expending open space waiver fees that is transparent and predictable;

D.      Incentivize the payment of waiver fees over providing open space on site so as to encourage a network of open spaces with public benefits versus isolated and fragmented private green spaces; and

Ensure a complete overhaul of the Local Open Space Manual.

Klaus Philipsen, FAIA

Link to special NeighborSpace webpage with materials on Open Space Waiver Fee issue.
Greater Towson Council Slide Show on the open space issues in Towson