Home | BaltimoreBrew.com
Commentaryby Gerald Neily2:21 amJun 18, 20100

Three downtown Baltimore events yesterday point the same way. . .

. . . and it’s not toward downtown

Three events yesterday neatly illustrated the way Baltimore’s downtown is still being abandoned by the very people for whom it should matter most.

Morgan Stanley dedicated its new building off in Harbor Point, far from the city center and totally surrounded by oceans of parking on two sides and a real ocean (err, Harbor) on the other two sides. The ESPN Zone mega-sports bar-gaming-arcade restaurant announced that it is moving out of the Inner Harbor Power Plant. And the tallest building in town, located at Light, Lombard, Charles and Pratt (and recently fled by Legg Mason and previously by USF&G) unveiled a $45 million dollar upgrade as it attempts to refill all that now-vacant space.

The signature element of that upgrade is a new “front porch” (some have called it a “plaza”) on top of its partly-submerged parking pedestal, so that office workers can watch the surrounding streetlife go by.

An owner’s representative, Will Eglin, said in The Sun that this space was previously “inhospitable and dehumanizing.” Ouch – no wonder Legg Mason moved out.

But is the streetlife on Light Street worth watching? It’s basically just a traffic snarl, fed by the ubiquitous nearby parking garages. Light Street is such a whooshing traffic-way that it became the prime attraction for the 200 mph racecars of the anticipated Baltimore Grand Prix.

New 100 Light Street plaza, seen from Light Street. The elevation difference is due to an underground parking garage. (Photo by Gerald Neily)

New 100 Light St. plaza, seen from the base of the building. (Photo by Gerald Neily)


New parking garage across Lombard Street, with first floor retail veneer. (Photo by Gerlad Neily)

One step forward, two steps back

Yet another new parking garage across Lombard Street is a much bigger element of the USF&G/Legg Mason/100 Light Street remake than the new “front porch.” It’s been given a veneer of first-floor retail, to try to make it palatable to pedestrians. But the remaining parking between the sidewalk and the street traffic was eliminated to provide an exclusive lane for the new Charm City Circulator bus route. Without the presence of on-street parking, there is nothing between sidewalk pedestrians and the whizzing traffic.

Jane Jacobs taught us fifty years ago that cities live or die depending on the quality of their street life. We see cities from their streets, just as we see people’s souls through their eyes. Downtown Baltimore’s ongoing identity crisis demonstrates that many people don’t like what they see. They’d rather just watch the harbor go by, away from the traditional downtown streets.

The city has far bigger plans for this “dehumanizing” space than just a new front porch. They want to radically remake Pratt Street by lining it with many blocks of new retail buildings instead of just plazas. And the main downtown entrance to the $1.8 billion Red Line subway would be near the corner of Light and Lombard Street, adjacent to that new front porch.

Storefronts and transit can’t solve deeper problems

Will the city’s massive retail infusion approach work? David Cordish, landlord of the soon to be vacated ESPN Zone, doesn’t think so. He’s the one who’s going to have to refill that ESPN Zone space, so he has probably given it a hard look. Combine that with the ongoing massive bankruptcy ordeal of General Growth Properties, owner of Harborplace and the Gallery at Harborplace, and a real pattern emerges. Cordish is often cited as the man who has the expertise and financial wherewithal to come in and rescue GGP. His retail philosophy has traditionally been to fix what has already been built rather than overextending into new development.

As for transit, the city’s experience with its current subway does not bode well for the rescue powers of yet another new subway two blocks away. The existing subway was built with the creation of a spacious and inviting environment as a high priority, with provisions for new underground retail that would make it a “city within a city.” The Lexington Street entrance was given particular attention to create a very human transition from the underground to the Lexington Mall and what was the newly developed Hutzler’s “Palace” Department store. But it didn’t worked out that way. Hutzler’s and the Lex Mall are long gone, and the Howard/Lexington district is now awaiting yet another heroic makeover attempt.

The MTA’s proposed Red Line would inevitably fare even worse. Nowadays, there’s no money to build anything but the bare bones. Light rail, unlike heavy rail, is built so that stations can be totally unmanned, and the temptation will be overwhelming for the MTA to operate it that way unless or until a crime threat demands human security. The notorious proposed two block pedestrian tunnel between the Red Line and the existing subway promises to be a particularly scary place at off-hours.

The owners of these underused buildings understand that they need to make the most of what has already been built. But the true foundation of downtown is its street environments, and occupants will continue to flee to the water or the suburbs until we reinvent Light, Pratt, Lombard and other downtown streets into livable places.

How to do that? (My editor asked, bummed by the critical tone of tis post.) That’sa good question, I replied — and a whole separate post.

ADDENDUM:

Commenter mc wrote, “your image of the MS building is deceptively shot to make your point.”

So, here is another photo I took at the same time, with a 6 mm focal length instead of the 12 mm on the photo which was used in the article.

Commmenter mc also asked if I explored LCF next door, which stands for Living Classrooms Foundation.

The answer is “no.”

Most Popular