Zeidler

When the board of the Christopher Columbus Center announced in December that it was replacing architect Richard Rogers with the Zeidler Roberts Partnership of Toronto, it gave up on the dream of bringing that visionary British architect's work to Baltimore. But it did so in order to cling to another dream, that of a world-class research facility that would help to preserve this country's lead in the emerging field of marine biotechnology.Given current economic realities, getting the center built had to take priority over dreams of a spectacular, pace-setting design that would inevitably carry with it a higher price tag and unpredictable cost-overruns that could alienate the public funding sources essential to the project.

If the Rouse Company built medical centers, this would be its flagship.Walking through its glassy front entrance and into its landscaped, skylit atrium, visitors may think they're in an upscale shopping mall or posh resort hotel rather than a place for sick people. Call it a festival hospital, perhaps, or the Suites at Medical Place. ("Having a wonderful operation," the gift shop postcards will read. "Wish you were here.")Actually, this consumer-friendly environment is the Homer Gudelsky Inpatient Building, an $85 million, 149-bed clinical tower that the University of Maryland Medical System plans to build starting this spring at the northwest corner of Lombard and Greene streets.

Unable to agree on fees in a "worsening economic climate," planners of the Inner Harbor's Christopher Columbus Center parted ways yesterday with the showpiece project's superstar British architect.Directors of the Christopher Columbus Center of Marine Research and Exploration voted unanimously yesterday to hire a new designer for the $164 million project's "construction phases," effectively replacing London architect Richard Rogers.Chairman Stanley Heuisler said the board was unable to come to terms with Mr. Rogers on a fee schedule and was afraid the final design would be too expensive to build.

One of the most-coveted architectural commissions in Baltimore this year has gone to a group headed by the Zeidler Roberts Partnership of Toronto.The University of Maryland Medical System reviewed proposals from 25 design teams before selecting the Canadian-led group to design an $83 million, 149-bed clinical tower for the northwest corner of Lombard and Greene streets -- the largest single component of a $210 million capital improvement program that the...