New Building

Schools Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin unveiled a $99.9 million capital budget last week that would include money for a variety of projects, such as a new school in northeastern Howard County that is slated to open in 2013. The amount of the 2011-2012 budget will likely increase in the coming months, according to Cousin. The school board must approve a version of the capital budget by Oct. 6, when a draft must be submitted to the State Construction Program staff. The school system will approve a final budget by June.

Four decades ago, when Columbia pioneer Andrea Gruhl worked part-time at what was then called the Frederick Road Library in Ellicott City, then-county commissioner Charles E. Miller's cattle grazed right outside the small red brick and glass building, she said. "I was sure I was the only librarian in the whole United States who had that view, and now we're going back to that," she said, delighted. Gruhl was among about 35 people who Monday night attended the first of two meetings at what is now called the Charles E. Miller library to find out more about the mega-replacement building set to rise next year just behind the current, outmoded library.

A private school with a nearly century-old castle at the center of its campus plans to expand in the future while keeping an eye on its past. Maryvale Preparatory School's humanities building, its latest proposed addition, has won approval from the Baltimore County Planning Board and will now move through the development review process. Maryvale opened nearly 65 years ago in the castle, a stately stone residence in Brooklandville patterned after a British medieval manor. The home, built in 1916 with 65 rooms and a great hall, is designated and preserved as a Baltimore County landmark.

With six months to go before moving into their new $15.5 million building on the Fallsway, Health Care for the Homeless officials gave Mayor Sheila Dixon a hard-hat tour Thursday. The three-story building with a partial green roof is walking distance from Our Daily Bread and the city's planned 148-bed emergency shelter and housing resource center. Dixon said having homeless services in one area "maximizes the support people need to get back on their feet." Jeff Singer, president and chief executive officer of Health Care for the Homeless, said the buildings' proximity to one another will "promote synergy" because the providers can walk people from one place to the next and save on transportation.

The first wave of Legg Mason employees showed up at new Harbor East headquarters Monday, representing a new start for the struggling money manager while also creating a potential boon for businesses at the waterfront neighborhood. At the same time, Legg's relocation will leave a big dent in the old central business district. The huge vacancy at 100 Light St., where Legg occupied 22 of the 35 floors, has not been filled. For surrounding businesses at Legg's former home, the loss means more bad news during trying economic times.

The renaissance of East Baltimore will reach a milestone Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newest building on the Johns Hopkins medical campus, a $105 million research and surgical building for the Wilmer Eye Institute. The Robert H. and Clarice Smith Building, named for its lead donors, contains a first-floor surgical pavilion with six ophthalmic operating rooms that will enable Hopkins surgeons to perform 50 percent more procedures each day. It also has five levels of research space, more than doubling the amount devoted to one of the country's largest eye-related research programs, and quadrupling the research space at Wilmer dedicated to age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness among Americans 55 and older.

Baltimore County school officials will move forward with plans to build new facilities for Dundalk High and Sollers Point Technical High after a unanimous school board vote Tuesday night. The new buildings would be constructed at the current Dundalk High site, officials said. School officials determined the projected cost of building new schools was close to what has been estimated for renovations and replacements in the old facilities, said Michael Sines, executive director of physical facilities.

For the parents of developmentally disabled adults, Opportunity Builders Inc. has been a place for their children to make friends, learn life skills and be productive. The parents of children with mental retardation, autism and other disabilities, volunteered and donated money to keep the nonprofit going for the past 47 years, even rescuing it from closure in 1986 when the doors were padlocked because of unpaid bills. Tomorrow, they get to celebrate a hard-fought milestone for OBI - the grand opening of its own 41,000-square-foot headquarters on 14.5 acres.

Ensure UB building is part of city's life As Tuesday's Baltimore Sun announced, the University of Baltimore School of Law has selected a design for its new building ("A bright new face for UB law school," Nov. 18). The city should congratulate the university and the law school for making such an exciting and progressive selection. But now the hard work begins. It would be very easy to make this building into an inaccessible bunker. The site is difficult and detached. It is surrounded by fast surface traffic, an exit ramp from Interstate 83 and the busy intersection of Charles Street and Mount Royal Avenue.

The planned urbanization of central Columbia may eventually require a new elementary school, county school officials say. But a more pressing worry is crowded classrooms along the redeveloping U.S. 1 corridor. Joel Gallihue, manager of school planning, told the County Council and school board recently that apartments and condominiums like those planned by General Growth Properties for Town Center produce more school-age children than they did a generation ago. Although the economy is slowing, housing will come once land-use approvals are granted, Gallihue said.