Seltzer Tower

Talk about a gym with a view.Developers are proposing to build a 20-story apartment tower in downtown Baltimore featuring a rooftop exercise complex with windows gazing out at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and the glowing clock of the Bromo Seltzer Tower.The Quadrangle Development Corp. of Washington, and Mendel Friedman of Baltimore plan to present sketches of the 300-unit Market Center West apartments to a city architectural review board Thursday.The $30 million-plus project, which would replace a city-owned parking lot at Lombard and Howard streets, would fit with the city's strategy of reviving the west side of downtown by attracting hundreds of students and young professionals, said Edward M. Hord, designer of the project and principal of the Hord Coplan Macht architecture firm.

For decades, the Bromo Seltzer Tower in Baltimore was the symbol for a famous headache remedy made by the Emerson Drug Co. The tower even had a large blue Bromo Seltzer bottle on top.Now a developer in Aruba is planning to build a clone of the Bromo tower to symbolize a different kind of remedy: sun and fun at the beach.Aruba's tower, inspired by the 1911 landmark in Baltimore, will be the centerpiece of a shopping and recreational center called Beachside Aruba -- part of the Dutch Caribbean island's upscale Palm Beach area.

FIVE MONTHS before Kurt L. Schmoke left the mayor's office in Baltimore, his housing commissioner suggested creating upscale residences inside one of Baltimore's best known landmarks, the historic Bromo Seltzer Tower at 15 S. Eutaw St.Now it's up to Mayor Martin O'Malley and acting housing commissioner M. J. "Jay" Brodie to decide whether the project moves ahead and, if so, who will carry it out.In response to a request for proposals issued when Schmoke was...

For Justin Talbot, the other three seasons are for playing football, running track and hanging out with friends. Summer is for hanging out with his grandfather, Rowland Fontz, and that is part of the reason that Baltimore's Bromo Seltzer clock is working again.Justin, 15, and Fontz, 71, have spent the last month going to the top of the Bromo Seltzer Tower with one purpose in mind: to revive the clock.Success came Thursday afternoon about 2: 30, ending a hiatus of about three months. The clock had faltered April 7, then stopped early in June -- reading "10: 04" -- because the hands were weighing too heavily on the clock's gear mechanism.

Edward Emerson Murray, one of the owners of the Bromo Seltzer Tower who helped forge the deal that gave the building to Baltimore in 1973, died Thursday of pneumonia at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury. He was 77.The Baltimore resident, who was on vacation in Salisbury, was 77.Mr. Murray's great-uncle, Capt. Isaac E. Emerson, founded and ran Emerson Drug Co., which built the 300-foot-tall tower at Eutaw and Lombard streets to advertise one of its products, Bromo Seltzer, a powder for headaches and upset stomachs.

Baltimore's nighttime skyline is about to get a little brighter.The Bromo Seltzer Tower at Eutaw and Lombard streets, a crenelated copy of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, will be the next high-rise illuminated in the "Brighten Baltimore" campaign.Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke announced recently that the city, which owns the landmark, has made a commitment to light up the tower by midsummer.The decision is a sign of the city's support for the Brighten Baltimore campaign, which has asked owners of more than 30 high-rises to light up their buildings at night.

William Frank knows the routine: Spring forward, fall back. And make no sudden movements while servicing a clock 300 feet off the ground.Mr. Frank, a city building repairman, adjusted the massive, four-faced timepiece atop the 15-story Bromo Seltzer Tower yesterday morning.It wasn't as easy as changing his watch: An hour hand on the famous Baltimore landmark weighs 145 pounds.But Mr. Frank didn't totter on a ledge or hang from the minute hand in midair like some star of a silent film.Actually, he never left the building.

I was having lunch yesterday with a writer friend from New York City. Between bites of rigatoni, he was gushing about Baltimore.Yeah, a New Yorker knocked out by the urban charms of Baltimore. This All-Star spell was working.Of course it was working on him. He had a ticket.It turns out he loved the harbor, the ballpark, the warehouse, even the rigatoni."But, hey," he said, "I remember Baltimore when it was a dump. The streets were patrolled by big, ugly dogs and the tallest building was the Bromo Seltzer tower.

Dear Stadium Doctor:I've been meaning to send this letter for about three weeks.While at a recent game, I was sitting on the first-base side and noticed the view of Eutaw Street, including the Bromo Seltzer Tower, became increasingly drab. Maybe the owner of the building should take a look at the older buildings in Manhattan, many of which have colored lights reflecting off their tops.The Bromo Seltzer Tower adds to the atmosphere of Camden Yards and shouldn't be lost in the night.Chris CanningBaltimoreDear Chris Canning:Thank you for your illuminating suggestion about the Bromo Seltzer Tower, which happens to be one of my favorite downtown landmarks, rivaling Stadium Doctor Birthplace and Museum and the site of a chance meeting several years ago between myself and weatherman Tom Tasselmyer.

TELEVISION coverage of the Orioles' games these days finds the camera reaching out beyond the stadium to make the point that the stadium is, happily, located downtown, well within the old city. Frequently, the camera finds its way to, and comes to rest at, the old Bromo Seltzer Tower building -- sans the "blue bottle." All of which has been leading to suggestions from fans (and this newspaper) to the city fathers that they "bring back the blue bottle."That's not a bad idea, but it will take some doing.

Four Marylanders who helped transform Baltimore's historic Bromo Seltzer Tower into artists' studios are exploring plans to restore another city property, the Inn at Government House. The Baltimore Development Corp. has selected Government House LLC, a team that includes father-and-son developers Martin and Tony Azola of Azola & Associates and philanthropists Sylvia and Eddie Brown, to receive a negotiating privilege that will give them time to come up with plans for redeveloping the three-building complex at 1125 to 1129 N. Calvert St. The selection comes eight months after the city sought proposals from developers interested in buying or leasing the 21-room inn, considered the city's official guesthouse.

Creating artists' studios inside Baltimore's historic Bromo Seltzer Tower, part of the factory where Capt. Isaac Emerson made his famous headache and heartburn remedy, brought its own set of headaches for the public officials, architects and contractors who worked on the $1.5 million project. Their solution, which will be unveiled at a grand opening Thursday, is one of the most inspired and resourceful preservation projects Baltimore has seen in some time, a feat of ingenuity that retains the tower's 1911 appearance while promising to keep it bustling with activity.

For the time conscious - and challenged - commuter, the Bromo Seltzer Tower clock has been invaluable. Stark against the sky, it offered assurance that you would get to where you had to be in time. Or on time. Punctual, an old professor once said. And if you fell in with the latecomers, an impulse to step on it never followed derision or complaint. It may have been encouraged, the clock's big wooden hands so seriously set at keeping time. Whether driving east, west, north or south, the commuter only had to look up to know the time, the day moving slowly and steadily across the clock face.

THE PROBLEM -- One of the clock faces on the Bromo Seltzer Tower shows the wrong time. THE BACKSTORY -- This problem started a couple of weeks ago, when reader Maura Deeley noticed that the times on all four clock faces atop the 200-foot-high tower at Eutaw and Lombard streets showed different times, none of them correct. Watchdog investigated and found that she was right. At 5:40 a.m., the 25-foot-tall clock facing south showed 2:23. The clocks facing west and north said it was 5:16.

Photographer Chris Peregoy works from a darkroom on the second floor of his Baltimore rowhouse. Yesterday, he surveyed a work space with 11-foot ceilings in one of the most recognizable buildings in the downtown skyline. He was among dozens of artists - painters, sculptors and writers - who climbed a circular staircase to the upper floors of the Bromo Seltzer tower during an open house. The 1911 Italianate landmark, a former factory and office building known for the blue glow cast from 25-foot-tall clock faces, is taking on a new life as an urban art center.

Whether it's a harried businessman caught in a downpour without an umbrella, a family standing on the corner with a bunch of tired kids, or someone eating lunch on a park bench - all are now fair targets for the Downtown Partnership's newest mission: spreading cheer with random acts of kindness. Armed with hospitality bags, which like Santa's are packed with goodies, the organizations 45 paid public safety guides are on the hunt for people who look like they could use a surprise gift. Downtown merchants and attractions have donated thousands of dollars in coupons for free or discounted food, drinks, merchandise and tickets to the National Aquarium and other sites.

Local arts supporters Sylvia and Eddie Brown are jump-starting a long-stalled effort to convert Baltimore's historic Bromo Seltzer tower to artists' studios by participating in a public-private partnership that would enable them to purchase the 94-year-old building from the city. Under the agreement, which Mayor Martin O'Malley is scheduled to announce Monday, the city would sell the building at 15 S. Eutaw St. for $1 to a newly formed company that would transform the 15-story tower into 15 to 20 artists' studios.

Construction magnate Willard Hackerman has backed away from plans to invest in the redevelopment of Baltimore's historic Bromo Seltzer tower, just days after he pulled out of a disputed land acquisition deal in St. Mary's County. Hackerman, chief executive of Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., had been negotiating to purchase federal preservation tax credits as the last piece of a financing package that would enable Baltimore to proceed with a $1.5 million renovation of the vacant tower at 15 S. Eutaw St., transforming it to artists' studios.

Construction magnate Willard Hackerman has backed away from plans to invest in the redevelopment of Baltimore's historic Bromo Seltzer tower, just days after he pulled out of a disputed land acquisition deal in St. Mary's County. Hackerman, chief executive of Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., had been negotiating to purchase federal preservation tax credits as the last piece of a financing package that would enable Baltimore to proceed with a $1.5 million renovation of the vacant tower at 15 S. Eutaw St., transforming it to artists' studios.

The tiny floors inside Baltimore's historic Bromo Seltzer Tower are about to get even tinier, but it's for a good cause. Part of each floor will be cut out to create a second stairway within the shell of the 15-story building, for use in case of fire. The change is part of a $1.1 million plan to convert the tower to artists' studios by late 2005 without adversely altering the building's distinctive appearance. Plans to renovate the city-owned tower cleared a major hurdle last week, when city voters approved a bond issue that will provide $500,000 to start the work.