Amtrak vs. The Railway Express Building

I'm pretty sure you all know the Railway Express Building. It's that great old Art Deco structure between Calvert and St. Paul Streets right above or more accurately between the Amtrak line and the JFX/I-83. Its western side is almost directly across from the St. Paul Street entrance to Penn Station. It's a great building that has, you guessed it, been converted into apartments and retail. 

When I heard there was going to be 30 residential units and perhaps 20 commercial spaces my first thought was, where is everyone going to park? I knew residents would get some parking spaces, but what about their guests? There is no mention of parking in this article from March. However, "below-building parking deck" was mentioned this past April in this article.

It seems, now that the condos are built, there is a controversy over said "below-building parking". Check out this story from the Maryland Daily Record website.

Convention Center Hotel News

I hope to get to some actual design criticism, not just my knee-jerk reaction to news stories, like this one. But here it is...

This story is below WBAL-TV's great Jayne Miller standards. It is pretty easy to ask the average Orioles fan if he or she likes the big new hotel that now dominates the skyline, as viewed from Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Would you rather see this or this? (Please forgive the perspective differences. I'll try to find better comparison photos.) 

I love the last "Viewing An Interloper" comment in Edward Gunt's April 21 Sun article. Yes, "the quirkiness of the Bromo Seltzer Tower" will be missed and it is a Baltimore landmark. But I hate the "It doesn't say Baltimore" statement. Modern can mean Baltimore. It just rarely does, unfortunately. 

Did the city need a "Convention Center" hotel to stay competitive in the convention business? Likely, yes. (For more about that there is plenty of Baltimore Sun coverage here. Please note: the artist's rendering shown there is outdated.) 

Hotels such as this are kind of limited in the shape they can take: The owner has to decide how many room it needs in order to make money. Then you have to worry about factors such as orientation (harbor view/Oriole Park view) and height limitations (Shock Trauma's heli-pad is nearby.) Would a round building have allowed a better view of the skyline? My guess is yes, but it would have had too many rooms facing west. Sunsets are nice, but that's not the Baltimore experience tourists want to remember.

Clipper Mill News

Tuesday, there was a posting on the Maryland Daily Record's blog announcing that Clipper Mill had received a 2008 Urban Land Institute Excellence Award. Congratulations to Bill Stuever and everyone at Stuever Bros. Eccles and Rouse.

MDR's blogger Robbie Whelen writes, "(Clipper Mill) ... features a pool surrounded by faux-Roman columns that make the run-down stone walls of the old mill building look like the site of a classical ruin."

I have to disagree with you, Robbie. The faux-Roman columns might be the worst exterior feature of the renovated complex. Those columns do not work at all with the 1850's brick and stone textures that dominate most of the site. The columns just draw attention to themselves for what they are, cheesy faux-Roman columns that belong in the Towson Town Center mall.

That criticism aside, the complex has been a success, as The Millrace Condos at Clipper Mill have sold out.

Baltimore Arena News

Today's Baltimore Sun has an article by Edward Gunts about the future location of a new indoor sports arena replacing the current 1st Mariner Arena. (Previous Sun coverage on this topic can be found here.)

What is not mentioned in this story, but was in the fall of 2007, is another, significant reason why they can't build on the current site: where do the Baltimore Blast indoor soccer team, the circus, the concerts and the ice shows go for the two or three years it takes to build a new arena? 

The economic loss of those bookings would be significant. Or so it is thought. During professional sport strikes and lock-outs, reports here and here have shown that people will just take their entertainment dollar elsewhere. It is likely suburbanites will spend their money outside of Baltimore, which isn't good for the health of the city.

There is speculation that if the circus and ice shows skip Baltimore during the construction, it might take years for them to return, as a number of cities vie for these attractions. I do not know if the circus and/or the ice shows have long-term contracts with specific arenas.

Obviously, the Baltimore business community would love to have an entire block (the present site) to develop as a bridge between downtown and the current west-side projects, in addition to consolidating the city's sports venues and encouraging retail, entertainment and dining growth south of M&T Stadium (if that is the selected site.)

Does Baltimore need a new arena? Yes, I think so.

I'm all for it, as long as it:

1. Isn't publicly funded.

2. Is Esthetically pleasing.

3. Does not result in the destruction of great old brick buildings (warehouses, foundries, machine shops, etc.) that really put the "charm" in Charm City.