April 01, 2001|By Tom Pelton | By Tom Pelton,sun staff
From the board meeting, Struever speeds over to the former Kirk Stieff silver factory at 800 Wyman Park Drive, which his company is converting into offices. Tonight, he's lending the landmark building to organizers of a cocktail party packed with Democratic heavyweights, including U.S. Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, Baltimore County Executive Dutch Ruppersberger and State House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. The evening will raise about $30,000 for state Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg, chairman of the state House appropriations subcommittee that approved millions for the Terraces housing project built by Struever.
Rosenberg compares Struever to Baltimore's business titans of the 19th century - Enoch Pratt, the banker and library founder, and Johns Hopkins, father of the university, men who out of a sense of moral duty donated their time and money to uplift the city.
"Bill Struever, I believe, will leave a comparable mark on the city," Rosenberg says. "His great buildings and the impact he's had on the city's economy will have an important and long-lasting effect on Baltimore."
After about an hour of chatting, laughing and shaking hands with the Heineken-drinking crowd, Struever is on the move again. He's out the door, walking fast, striding across the darkened parking lot to his car. He'll drive at breakneck speed back to North Avenue to rejoin the school board meeting, which will drag on until close to midnight.
By the time this 17-hour day ends, he's hustled from a construction site to school headquarters to a political event, talking to workers in hard hats, bank executives, school administrators, senators. He's tried to solve the problems of Internet entrepreneurs and school dropouts. Just another day of saving the city.
But as his car hurdles through the night, it's suddenly clear he's forgotten something.
One hand on the steering wheel, he dials the number of his 17-year-old daughter, Lucy. She doesn't pick up, so he talks to her answering machine.
"Lucy!" he says. "It's your dad. Sorry I missed you."
Struever Brothers Projects
1976
436 Grindall St. and 25 other rowhouses in Fells Point
1978
Forty store renovations near Cross Street Market
1981
Louie's Cafe and several other buildings on North Charles Street
1983
Mill Center office complex built from former sail factory
1984
Park Plaza offices and restaurants on Charles Street, which today include Donna's Coffee Bar and Ruby Lounge
1985
Brown's Arcade mini-mall built from former rowhouses at 326 N. Charles St.
Charles Plaza retail plaza at Charles and Saratoga streets
1988
Tindeco Wharf, tin container factory converted into waterfront apartments at 2809 Boston St. in Canton
1990
Canton Cove Condominiums at 2901 Boston St. in Canton
1991
Our Daily Bread food pantry at 19 W. Franklin St. in Mount Vernon
1992
Orchard Street Church, at 512 Orchard St., converted into headquarters for the Baltimore Urban League
1994
Annie E. Casey Foundation headquarters at 701 St. Paul St. on Mount Vernon Square
1996
City Life Museum, construction of exhibition gallery for now-closed museum on President Street
1997
American Can Co., office and retail complex built from former cannery at 2400 Boston St. in Canton
1998
The Skylar Building, former Bagby furniture company factory converted into offices for Sylvan Learning Systems and other tenants at 509 S. Exeter St.
1999
The Terraces, construction of public housing apartments and for-sale townhouses at the southwest corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Mulberry Street
2000
Banc One check processing center at 900 E. Fayette St.
Kirk Stieff former silver factory renovated into offices at 800 Wyman Park Dr. in Hampden
Tide Point, soap factory converted into offices on Hull Street in Locust Point
2001
Congress Hotel, former grande dame hotel at 306 W. Franklin St., renovated into 36 apartments with historic Marble Bar
2002
Fells Landing, a complex of offices and apartments being planned with Constellation Real Estate on Thames Street in Fells Point
Under development
Harbor Point, a waterfront village of shops, apartments and offices being planned with H&S Properties Development Co. on the former Allied Chrome factory site in Fells Point
