Harborplace

Think you're pretty good at making sand castles? Pretty confident with that little plastic shovel and bucket, are you? Well, how about seeing some real pros take to the sand? Eight teams of architects will compete to build awe-inspiring sand sculptures at "City Sand 2002" at the Harborplace Amphitheatre Saturday. Their goal will be to build creative and imaginative sculptures in celebration of our nation's flag. The public is invited to watch the architects build from start to finish.

California Pizza Kitchen, a national restaurant chain featuring 25 varieties of hearth-baked pizza, will open in Harborplace in downtown Baltimore in early August, Rouse Co. said yesterday.The casual restaurant, with indoor and outdoor waterfront seating for 155, will move into a 3,700-square-foot spot between the Cheesecake Factory and Wayne's Bar-B-Q in the Pratt Street Pavilion.The chain has grown to 80 restaurants in 22 states since its founding in Beverly Hills, Calif., in 1985, as part of the California-style pizza craze.

THE COMPANY that manages Harborplace has told Jerry Rowan, its most popular and interesting performer over the last two decades, to pack up his unicycle, flaming torches and snappy one-liners, and find another place to do his act. Rowan, a juggler-comic who frequently draws the biggest crowds to Harborplace's outdoor amphitheater, complains that he's a victim of corporate overreaction to his sometimes biting, New York wise-guy comedy. (He thinks a couple of cracks about law enforcement's efforts to catch the Beltway sniper angered some police officers who were watching a recent performance.

An unattended bag inside the Light Street pavilion at Harborplace last night caused a two-hour disruption to vehicular traffic and forced pedestrians away from the area as police retrieved the bag, which turned out to contain a camera, police said. Police received a report about the bag at 6:35 p.m. It was near the Discovery Channel store on the first floor of the pavilion in the 300 block of Light St. The police bomb squad retrieved the bag and took it to a nearby area to examine. Vehicular traffic along more than a block of Light Street was detoured from the scene, and pedestrians were directed away from the area.

Rowan is back. I can hear the happiness in his voice, and I don't think it has anything to do with medication. As far as I know, the only mood-enhancer at play here is the anticipation of Rowan's return to what Rowan does best - making people laugh at Harborplace, tourist capitol of the Queen City of the Patapsco Drainage Basin. (Couple of weeks ago, a guy writes from Hampden - or Honville - that he doesn't like it when I use John Goodspeed's old nickname for Baltimore. He thinks it's a putdown.

Smoking will be banned inside Harborplace and The Gallery beginning April 1, the first malls in Baltimore City to impose a nonsmoking policy, the malls' manager said."

Has Ted Turner bought the town?For years, downtown Baltimore's two most visible public spaces, Harborplace and the Washington Monument, opted for all-white holiday attire -- strings of diamond-like lights twinkling against the dark night sky in a black-and-white movie come to life.But this year, they've been colorized.The monument is bedecked in gumdrop colors rather than the usual all-white lights, save for blue bulbs at the bottom of each string to memorialize city police and firefighters who gave their lives in duty.

Adair Sutton, former director of marketing for Harborplace and the Gallery, died of cancer Nov. 1 at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Butler resident was 52. Born Anne Adair Fogarty in Baltimore and raised in Butler, she was a graduate of the old Hannah More Academy and in 1975 earned her bachelor's degree in communications from what is now Towson University. "She was masterful in her coordination of people and ideas," said Cathy Case, former director of retail marketing for the old Rouse Co. "She was a wonderful ambassador and so proud of Baltimore.

Brother, can you spare a nickel? Restaurateur Jack Baum says he can.Nickel City Grill, a new restaurant selling grilled seafood, steaks and pork chops, will open in Harborplace in mid-July, filling the space left vacant by the departure of Mariner's Pier One overlooking the water at the Pratt Street Pavilion.Nickel City's owner, Mr. Baum, who first got into the restaurant business in Dallas 10 years ago and now owns three restaurants there and one in Phoenix, Ariz., said yesterday that he plans to make Baltimore his company headquarters once Nickel City has opened.