Five finalists to compete for UB law center design

The University of Baltimore announced yesterday the five finalists in its competition to design a $107 million law center near Penn Station.

The teams, all well-known architecture firms, were selected from nine groups that came to Baltimore this week to make oral presentations. The finalists will have approximately two months to prepare design concepts, and the winner will get a chance to negotiate a contract to design the John and Frances Angelos Law Center, which is planned to open in 2012 at the northeast corner of Charles Street and Mount Royal Avenue.

University President Robert Bogomolny has said he wants a "signature" building to house the law center, for which UB School of Law alumnus and Orioles majority owner Peter G. Angelos has pledged $5 million toward construction, the largest private gift in the university's history. The Abell Foundation has offered $150,000 toward the costs of the competition.

The finalists include:

* Foster + Partners of Britain, with Cho Benn Holback + Associates of Baltimore * Dominique Perrault Architecture of Paris, with Ziger Snead Architects of Baltimore* Behnisch Architekten of Stuttgart, Germany, with Ayers Saint Gross of Baltimore* Moshe Safdie and Associates of Somerville, Mass., with Hord Coplan Macht of Baltimore* SmithGroup of Washington

Bogomolny said the top principals of each firm provided assurances that they would work on the project personally, if hired, and not relegate it to underlings.

"To sit with this group of 21st-century artists, drawing what they might put on the University of Baltimore campus, was stunningly exciting," he said. "It's hard to image having more fun than seeing this happen."