Charles Center

WHEN CHARLES CENTER was built, architects wanted its two plazas to be like piazzas in the old Italian city of Siena -- centers of activity day and night. And for a while they succeeded.In 1970, the first City Fair brought more than 200,000 people to Center Plaza in a fun-filled exercise of civic harmony that gave Baltimore a badly needed boost of self-confidence two years after the trauma of race riots. Later, weekend ethnic festivals and concerts became popular events at Center and Hopkins plazas.

Call it a splurge to look young again as age 30 arrives. Call it an investment in keeping Baltimore's downtown renaissance vital. And, in the case of One Charles Center -- the landmark building that kick-started Baltimore's commercial resurgence when it opened in 1962 -- call the building's newly announced renovation a recession-induced necessity."

One Charles Center, the project that signaled Baltimore's downtown renaissance when it was built in 1962, was sold on the auction block yesterday for just $11.5 million -- far less than the $19.6 million debt against the building.To the surprise of no one in the city's commercial real estate community, the landmark was taken back by the mortgage holder, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. of New York. The only other bidder, who bid as high as $7 million, was Charles C. Edwards, a Baltimore physician and investor with a taste for bargains in commercial real estate.

TO MANY Baltimoreans and Marylanders, William Boucher III was the embodiment of this city's downtown rebirth. He served as the business community's prime spokesman and point man both to the public and to city and state officials. His articulation of the Charles Center and Inner Harbor visions and his rock-solid determination helped make them a reality.For a quarter-century, Mr. Boucher held the title of executive director of the Greater Baltimore Committee. He was the business group's staff leader as dreams of a revived downtown were slowly converted into bricks and mortar.

After sitting empty for months, prime space on the ground floor of the landmark One Charles Center building in downtown Baltimore has signed its first tenant. Office Depot, the world's second-largest office supply chain, will move into the 22-story office tower at 100 N. Charles St. in May or June. Orioles majority owner and attorney Peter G. Angelos bought the building, designed by the famed architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, in 1996. The Florida-based retailer will occupy more than 16,000 square feet of the 26,000 square feet of retail space in the building.

Long before Baltimore had its Harborplace pavilions, or the National Aquarium, or Oriole Park, there was Charles Center. The 33-acre district in the heart of downtown might not be as well known as some of the newer spots, and tourists don't typically seek it out. But it is as significant as any other development associated with modern-day Baltimore because, in many ways, it was the catalyst for all that followed, including the even more ambitious effort...

Peter G. Angelos yesterday unveiled a comprehensive revitalization for One Charles Center, two years after the Baltimore lawyer purchased the 22-story skyscraper that helped spark downtown's renaissance.Angelos' real estate arm, Artemis Management & Development Inc., plans to begin work next spring on the elevated plaza surrounding the 100 N. Charles St. building, adding glass on its ground level, as well as lighting, window tinting, cleaning and other improvements.In all, Angelos intends to spend $12 million to add parking, retail and restaurant space, and a new stairwell and entrance to the 320,000-square-foot building, which was completed in 1963.

Peter G. Angelos, bent on restoring Charles Center to the prominence it held decades ago, is hoping to rip up the plaza behind his 100 N. Charles St. skyscraper and replace it with a parking lot."The idea is to create parking for patrons of nearby shops, offices and guests of area hotels," said Wayne R. Gioioso Jr., president of Artemis Management & Development Inc., Angelos' real estate company.Angelos' plan to construct a surface lot with as many as 200 spaces in the plaza between the 22-story tower and Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s 39 W. Lexington St. headquarters would supply much-needed parking at a time when city officials are struggling to add spaces downtown.

IT makes good sense to create a separate, non-profit corporation to lead and champion development of the 18-block area surrounding the old Howard Street retail corridor. A well-coordinated private-public partnership is essential for this $350 million undertaking to succeed.The West Side Development Corp. should be up and running by mid-September. It faces a formidable task, but the group is better positioned to undertake it than the quasi-governmental Baltimore Development Corp.Indeed, one of the most heartening signs at the announcement of this group's formation last week was the encouragement of M.J. Brodie, who runs the BDC. He praised business leaders involved in the west side effort and the "classic, evolving private-public partnership."

THE FIRST BUILDING constructed as part of Baltimore's Charles Center renewal area, the One Charles Center office tower designed by world-renowned architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, may soon be added to the National Register of Historic Places. The nomination, to be considered this spring by the U.S. Department of the Interior, would, if approved, mark one of the few times local examples of modern architecture have been accorded "historic" status by the federal government. Two preservation groups, the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP)