Architectural Design

Developers in downtown Baltimore seek tax breaks and infrastructure improvements for their projects. In return for those benefits, Baltimore should require an architectural design competition in an effort to make the city a center for world-class architecture. A good place to start would be the project at Harbor Point being developed by John Paterakis, where the city will build a bridge from Harbor East to the Point and grant tax breaks for the development. But this requirement should be required of all downtown developers - and the city should also use design competitions for its major projects.

Developers in downtown Baltimore seek tax breaks and infrastructure improvements for their projects. In return for those benefits, Baltimore should require an architectural design competition in an effort to make the city a center for world-class architecture. A good place to start would be the project at Harbor Point being developed by John Paterakis, where the city will build a bridge from Harbor East to the Point and grant tax breaks for the development. But this requirement should be required of all downtown developers - and the city should also use design competitions for its major projects.

THE START of construction is more than a year off, but the urban village planned for Baltimore's Memorial Stadium property has won a national award for architectural design. Stadium Place, a $45 million community for older adults that will contain 404 residences and a wide range of recreational amenities, was selected to receive a silver award in the Best of Seniors' Housing program sponsored this year by the National Council on Seniors Housing and the National Association of Home Builders.

Cindy Jamison, of Havre de Grace, has announced the engagement of her daughter, Janel Brooke Jones, formerly of Bel Air, to Ethan Curran Andersen, of Pleasanton, Calif. The bride to be is the daughter of the late Guthrie Jones, of Aberdeen, step-daughter of John Stephens, of Havre de Grace, and the granddaughter of Jim and Jean Jamison, of Bel Air. Jones is a 1995 graduate of C. Milton Wright High School and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Art Therapy at The California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.

Architectural Design Works Inc., a Bel Air-based architectural design firm, has completed a new observation deck at the Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary.The firm was commissioned by the county Recreation and Parks Department through an agreement with Anne Arundel County.Construction required a minimum of disturbance to the wetlands while providing maximum panoramic vies of Jug Bay.Most of the deck was completed by hand in an effort not to disturb wildlife with bulldozers, pile drivers and cranes.

Gabriel Brothers opens in Constant FriendshipGabriel Brothers opened a 62,000-square-foot discount clothing and domestic goods store in the Constant Friendship Shopping Plaza Thursday.The store had been vacant since April 1994, when the Jamesway Department Store closed. The Abingdon shopping center, with 162,000 square feet, is anchored by a Weis Market.Gabriel, which has one other Maryland store, in Cumberland, joins a growing list of discount retailers in the Bel Air area. Target, part of the Dayton-Hudson Corp.

Firm wins contract to design brew pubArchitectural Design Works Inc., a Harford County-based architectural design firm, was commissioned to design the county's first micro-brewery, the DuClaw Brew Pub.The 10,000 square-foot brew pub will serve as an anchor tenant to the new 22,000 square-foot retail building that is being constructed at the Bel Air South Station shopping center, Route 24.Special features of the brew pub will include suspended taps which...

Construction started at Conowingo plantPhiladelphia Electric Co. has started construction of a new administration building at its Conowingo Hydroelectric Station, along U.S. 1 and the Susquehanna River.The $2.5 million, six-month project is the first expansion of the plant in Conowingo's 65-year history.The new addition will be a stucco, steel-framed three-story construction at the west end of the powerhouse. The project also includes renovations to the existing work space, including water system modifications.

Townhouse community to open sales officeThe Village of Winters Run, a townhouse community built by Scherr Homes, will open its sales office tomorrow.Off the south side of Singer Road off Route 24 in Abingdon, the community will include 251 townhouses and five single-family homes along Winters Run, surrounded by woods and pastures.Scherr Homes, which has developed housing since 1948, will build four townhouse models in the New England design style. Floor plans include two and three bedrooms with a variety of options, including sun rooms and decks.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards has won the first of what is likely to be a stadium full of architectural design awards.The urban design plan for the stadium was selected to receive the Grand Award in the 1991 design awards program sponsored the Baltimore chapter of the American Institute of Architects. RTKL Associates Inc. of Baltimore was honored as the designer.Eleven other buildings or projects were considered for awards, but the judges felt the stadium plan deserved "the highest level of recognition," said architect Charles Dagit.

Curt Raymond Schaefer, an architectural designer who was an advocate for the rejuvenation of aging Baltimore landmarks, died Sunday of complications from the flu at his Mount Vernon Place home. He was 51. Mr. Schaefer worked with design teams on the preservation of the Druid Hill Park Conservatory, the Lab School on the old Goucher College campus and the Enoch Pratt Free Library 's Canton and Edmondson Village branches. "I see my role as restoring and bringing back to use the historic buildings on the west side of downtown Baltimore," he told a Baltimore Sun reporter in 2008.

One of Baltimore's most well known features is its many historic rowhouses that line its neighborhoods. The countless row houses in the city are made up of different architectural design and many are 100 years old or older. After reading the recent article "Abandoned firetraps" (Oct. 19) I have become very concerned about the need to preserve them I have been through many of these neighbors where I have seen this sad neglect and boarded up vacant homes or many lived in that need work.

When viewers of tonight's episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition watch workers build, decorate and furnish a home in one week, they will see the vision of Ellicott City firm Architecture Collaborative brought to life. Each week, the program features a team of experts creating a dream home for a family in need. Tonight's episode shows the construction of a house in Capitol Heights, in Prince George's County, that the program's Web site calls "a new haven for a single mother and her eight children who have overcome tremendous hardship."

When Bill and Amy Hubbard bought the old stone house on Webster Street in Bel Air more than 10 years ago, they knew it had good bones. Slowly they renovated and added on, making the home an example of how a little extra effort goes a long way. What was important to the Hubbards was that the architecture and historic charm that they fell in love with was not lost in the improvements. So when it came time to put on a 2,300-square-foot addition, they wanted it to blend in and look like it was always part of the house.

Architecture at the Johns Hopkins University is like Baltimore's weather: If you don't like what you see, wait a while and it will change. Last spring, Hopkins dignitaries gathered on the Homewood campus for the opening of Mattin Center, an arts complex in the vanguard of architectural design. This fall, they celebrated the completion of Clark Hall, a teaching and research building that looks as if it could have been built in the 1800s. Both are attractive structures, with their own strengths.

WITHIN HOURS of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, concrete jersey barriers arose in front of Baltimore's police headquarters and other key buildings, including the main train station. Cities around the nation took similar emergency measures. But if terrorism becomes a permanent feature of U.S. life, more fundamental changes may be on the horizon in construction methods as well as in architectural design. In brief, the goal will be to build defensible spaces. Oscar Newman, who coined the phrase more than 20 years ago, applied the principle to crime-ridden public housing complexes.

One of Baltimore's most well known features is its many historic rowhouses that line its neighborhoods. The countless row houses in the city are made up of different architectural design and many are 100 years old or older. After reading the recent article "Abandoned firetraps" (Oct. 19) I have become very concerned about the need to preserve them I have been through many of these neighbors where I have seen this sad neglect and boarded up vacant homes or many lived in that need work.

Cindy Jamison, of Havre de Grace, has announced the engagement of her daughter, Janel Brooke Jones, formerly of Bel Air, to Ethan Curran Andersen, of Pleasanton, Calif. The bride to be is the daughter of the late Guthrie Jones, of Aberdeen, step-daughter of John Stephens, of Havre de Grace, and the granddaughter of Jim and Jean Jamison, of Bel Air. Jones is a 1995 graduate of C. Milton Wright High School and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Art Therapy at The California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.