Urban Design

BALTIMORE'S State Office building complex has a new look: The forbidding concrete terrace and skywalks above Preston Street are gone. Baltimoreans emerging from the Metro station can instantly see the area's two other destinations: the Fifth Regiment Armory and the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.This is the second time within a year that something of an the urban landscape miracle has been achieved by taking down 1960s and 1970s architectural obstructions.In February of 1998, the demolition of the former Hamburger's overhang across Fayette Street gave new light and airiness to Charles Center, highlighting downtown Baltimore's redevelopment possibilities.

The former Baltimore City Life Museums campus would become the site of a new visitors center for downtown Baltimore, if city officials follow the advice of urban designers hired to recommend ways to enliven downtown's east side.The visitors center at Lombard and Front streets would be connected by a pedestrian bridge to the $32 million children's museum under construction on Market Place. The bridge would cross President Street and serve as a gateway to the Inner Harbor.A 400-car garage would be constructed nearby to encourage tourists to park and explore areas beyond the Inner Harbor, including historic sites in Jonestown and a proposed "water park" alongthe Lower Jones Falls.

"Hopes and dreams" were the watchwords last night as more than 300 people gathered at the first forum in Baltimore to draw a new comprehensive master plan, billed by officials as offering a "clean slate" for the city.Charles C. Graves III, the city planning director, said the session at the Poly-Western auditorium was intended to develop a blueprint for Baltimore for the next century with resident participation.In his welcome to participants at the opening of PlanBaltimore!, Graves said, "We're not doing this for us. We're doing this for the next generation."

WITH development activity heating up east of Baltimore's Inner Harbor, civic leaders plan to hire an urban design expert to help coordinate it all.The Baltimore Development Corp. sought bids this year from urban experts who would like to be consultants for the design study, set to begin this spring.The study area is bounded by the Inner Harbor on the south; Frederick Street on the west; East Baltimore Street on the north; and Central Avenue on the east. Attractions include the old city fish market; the Brokerage at 34 Market Place; the new city police headquarters annex; Museum Row and the Inner Harbor East Metro stop.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- As America's cities get ready for the 21st century, Weiming Lu would like to see them building and perfecting ''urban villages'' that embody the best we've learned through the urban tribulations of the 20th.Mr. Lu's millennial villages would have a mix of tastefully recycled historic buildings and artfully designed new ones. People would flock to them for their varieties of age and ethnic groups, offices, homes and jobs, urban parks, street art and entertainment.The villages would be both arts districts and ''cyber-villages,'' attracting companies focused on the Internet, new media and telecommunications industries.

FIVE MONTHS after construction began, the new Lafayette Courts development in downtown Baltimore has won national recognition as a model of sensitive civic architecture.A jury of the American Institute of Architects selected the 374-unit development as one of five projects to receive 1997 honor awards for excellence in urban design.The master planner for Lafayette Courts was CHK Architects & Planners of Silver Spring. The owner is the Housing Authority of Baltimore City. Their project was chosen to receive the same prestigious AIA award that the master plan for Camden Yards won in 1992 and that Baltimore's Inner Harbor East community won last year.

Local architects are dusting off a 1990 plan that would create a large, parklike setting for the future Ravens football stadium. They plan to submit their suggestions to the team, whose current stadium plans have been criticized as run-of-the-mill.Designs for the stadium, which is following a rapid construction timetable, have elicited complaints from city planners and the Baltimore Architectural Review Board, who say the stadium plan is bland and offers little compatibility with neighboring Oriole Park.

Long before the opening of the National Aquarium or Harborplace, the USF&G building stood as the premiere symbol of Baltimore's Inner Harbor renaissance.It was the first high-rise corporate headquarters to be constructed as part of the waterfront renewal effort launched by then-Mayor Theodore McKeldin in 1963.Its high-quality design and finishes set the tone for other buildings that followed.Its rapid construction in the early 1970s provided the first tangible evidence that the city's grand plans for the Inner Harbor could be realized.

Hoping to encourage greater public use of a stretch of waterfront parkland that has become Baltimore's front yard, the Schmoke administration has launched an international design competition to generate ideas for Rash Field and the west shore of the Inner Harbor.The Baltimore Development Corp. advertised yesterday for expressions of interest from landscape architects, urban designers, architects and sculptors who would like to propose ways to revamp 20.6 acres of the Inner Harbor shoreline south of the twin pavilions of Harborplace.

Seeking to make a strong statement about the way its business has grown and changed, the 15-year-old architectural and urban design firm known as Columbia Design Collective is changing its name and moving from Columbia to downtown Baltimore.Principals of the company signed a lease this month to occupy the 14th floor of 100 E. Pratt St., an office tower that overlooks the Inner Harbor.From their drafting tables, employees will be able to see many of the projects on which they are working, including 100 HarborView Drive, the 28-story first tower of the HarborView community; the conversion of the Pier 4 Power Plant to a sports-oriented museum and entertainment complex; and a new health sciences library for the University of Maryland's Baltimore campus.