Inner Harbor Coalition

Story by Lorraine Mirabella, Baltimore Sun A controversial plan to remake Baltimore's Harborplace moved a step closer to reality Tuesday night after winning a key City Council committee vote that paves the way for a mixed-use development with apartment and office buildings in place of aging retail pavilions. The council's economic and community development committee voted to recommend approval of land-use legislation that will allow Baltimore-based MCB Development to move ahead in a process leading to a voter referendum on November's ballot. The developer has proposed demolishing the twin 43-year-old waterfront shopping and dining pavilions that for decades have symbolized the Inner Harbor attraction and replacing them with four taller, mixed-use buildings. Those include a conjoined tower with around 900 apartments, several smaller buildings, a large new park, a two-tier promenade and realigned roadways. Councilman Ryan Dorsey, a committee member, was the only dissenting v...

Community Architect Daily by Klaus Philipsen, FAIA The HarborPlace design team (architect Gensler and Landscape Architect Unknown Studio presented to the City's Design Review Panel (UDAAP) for a second time today and presented the memorable moment when a team that was sent packing in the first round only to came back with the exact same design  expecting a different outcome.  To be fair, in the initial review UDAAP didn't so much criticize the design as the lack of a process that showed how the team arrived at the design and the absence of submittals required during the concept plan review. In today's meeting those omissions were filled and the UDAAP process "rebooted" and the second session is considered an extension of the first.   UDAAP minutes of 11/16/23: How do the streets to the north intersect with the project? The team has not shared what happens at these key nodes. Are they being maintained as entry points? Will they be redesigned?  How does that edge ...

Community Architect Daily by Klaus Philipsen, FAIA The implosion of Harborplace A few years ago when the  HarborPlace pavilions  showed some signs of getting tired, few people thought it would take more than what then operator Ashkenazy proposed in UDAAP session #216 on November 12, 2015:  An architectural face-lift  for the two pavilions and a few new tenants. The discussion at the time revolved around a few renderings by the architects MG2 showing steel frames, rooftop signs and new wood paneling. MG2 Architects  UDAAP presentation rendering 2015 (MG2) Fast forward seven years, and it is possible that the pavilions will be razed entirely. No longer is the debate simply about dressing up the pavilions but whether they should be replaced with new structures, or even highrises.  In 42 years the pavilions went from being the icons of Baltimore's waterfront renaissance to being tossed like disposable diapers. This is long in the life of retail structures but n...