Baltimore in the 70's and 80's: being torn down.

What was Baltimore like before I-83 was built right down the middle of the city (1975)? Before a lot of larger interesting buildings were torn down in the 1970's and 80's?

I spent some time browsing this interesting blog; Kilduffs.com, which has a LOT of great images of buildings and street-views from the 1900's to the 1970's. Link

Baltimore, 1914/From Kilduffs.

Same site, different page, lists buildings that have been town down. I am amazed that the Tower Building was taken down in 84'! I'd never heard of it--it looks so cool! (near the bottom) Link

Tower Building coming down, 1984/from Kilduffs

Here's another great page, a travelogue documenting Baltimore in 1979. Great pictures of inner harbor, fells point, power plan (check out how spooky it looks!). Link

Calvert Rowhomes Demolished

This weekend I discovered that my a favorite crumbling ruin of mine, a pistachio-green three-story rowhome on the 2100 block of Calvert Street, in Baltimore, was finally demolished. I wrote about the house earlier, here.

As it was...
What a beauty

From Google Maps, on Built Baltimore

At the same time, Axis Alley, a very cool experiment in environmental art, also comes to a close. A number of artists had been painting, building and engaging with the site for the past few months. The demolishing of the block and clearing of the lot ends this temporary exhibit as well.


I've discovered that the 2100 block demolition is part of an 85 Million dollar redevelopment deal between the city of Baltimore and the DC development company, Telesis. Details are here.


















Neighborhood re-envisioned by Telesis. [From Baltimorebrew.com, courtesy Telesis.]

I don't quite understand why the properties still appear to be owned either by the "Housing Authority" or "the Mayor and City Council". They got some good deals though! (Here's a home sold to the city for 5$!!)

I hope the new structures coming soon to Charles Village, Goucher and Barclay will respect the architectural heritage of the buildings they are replacing, and not just be bland, thoughtless generic "ugly-tecture" (Of the variety of Charles Commons or Village Lofts in upper Charles Village! Ugh!). We'll see I guess!

† [A Note to readers. I am currently migrating images previously hosted on flickr. Hopefully images that have been 'broken' by flickr (*shakes fist menacingly*) will soon be restored.]

City Parks: Money Makers or Takers?

Now that happy weather is returning (It's in the high 80's F today!) the time has come again to hit those city parks. (For purposes other than sledding.)

Charm City has 6,000 acres of parkland and public space according to the parks site. (not exactly sure what "public space" means. I think this may include cemeteries?).

Anyway, that's like 400 square feet a person! Get out there an use it!

But wait!

Facing budget cuts, the city is canceling its city-hall vegetable garden for 2010. Pools are being shut, just in time for a hot summer, and the city tree program has been pruned--not that too much can be done; the city is simply running out of money.

For taxpayers living in the city's suburban fringe it may not have a very noticeable impact; Suburban private back yards offer plenty of relaxation (there may not even be any parks in walking distance), and less-dense areas usually have plenty of trees.

But for the inner, more urban regions of the city, park-space, recreational amenities and trees are important parts of making a 'liveable' environment.

A liveable urban environment can benefit everyone in a city, state and region by attracting and anchoring businesses, cultural institutions, and creatives, like artists and innovators--the question is, who pays for it?

The interests of different geographical communities are obviously different in this respect--and so I wondered:

-How can city parks be money-generators instead of money-takers?

-How can city parks attain a critical mass in terms of value and cost?

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I have personally seen two examples of amazing large-scale urban parks which have achieved that critical mass; albeit in two very old, world-class cities, New York, USA and Berlin, Germany.

Central Park in NYC and the Tiergarten in Berlin are both extremely successful at making the areas around them lively, beautiful and therefore desirable. There are obviously MANY complicating factors; Museums and Government buildings, monuments and transport hubs nearby these parks may draw people artificially to the spaces, for instance.

Still, I feel that corridor-like 'central' parks offer a great alternative focus for a neighborhood or an entire city, when compared to alternatives like 'street centered' designs or geographic centered plans, where the focus of a place becomes a body of water, like a harbor or river.

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Central Park in NYC is 843 acres, about 15% the size of all the parkspace in Baltimore.

It's an important green space which circulates people up and down the city.

Baltimore is not Manhattan, but it is intriguing to imagine the possibility of a similar central park-like corridor system of parks linking existing Baltimore green space.

(Mid and Downtown Baltimore, picture scale about 2.75 miles a side.)

Inner Harbor visible to the south, Druid Hill res. in upper left, roughly centered on the Charles Street Corridor.

(Same photo and scale, Central Park in NYC magically superimposed.)

Central Park is 2.5 Miles long and .5 miles wide. Not many people know that Central Park is maintained by a private, not for profit organization, under contract with the Parks Dept. (source)

Same superimposition approx. 10 miles to a side.

Baltimore is roughly the shape of an inverted spade. It is mostly bounded by an interstate beltway (695) which forms a rough ring around the city, about 9 miles in diameter.

An imagined green-space network, a "road" of parks and public space connecting existing city green-space. The damage a scheme like this might possibly cause to architecturally significant buildings, as well as the cohesion of existing neighborhoods, would be a major drawback of it's implementation.

Maps sourced from Google.

An interesting resource I discovered while searching for maps of Baltimore green spaces is this neat gadget at Open Green Map.

It conveniently maps resources promoting Sustainable Living (Markets etc.), Nature (Parks) and Culture and Society, like museums, in Baltimore.

Check it out and see what green space may be near you!