The HarborPlace design team (architect Gensler and Landscape Architect Unknown Studio presented to the City's Design Review Panel (UDAAP) for a second time today and presented the memorable moment when a team that was sent packing in the first round only to came back with the exact same design expecting a different outcome.
To be fair, in the initial review UDAAP didn't so much criticize the design as the lack of a process that showed how the team arrived at the design and the absence of submittals required during the concept plan review. In today's meeting those omissions were filled and the UDAAP process "rebooted" and the second session is considered an extension of the first.
UDAAP minutes of 11/16/23: How do the streets to the north intersect with the project? The team has not shared what happens at these key nodes. Are they being maintained as entry points? Will they be redesigned? How does that edge interact with the development?
There needs to be a much more rigorous investigation of the possibilities with regard to the
massing and placement of buildings. There's absolutely no telling why the 2 towers are
positioned where they are on Light Street, why they are on one side and not the other.
The team is encouraged to challenge the morphology around the forms as they develop –
provide more analysis on how these forms evolved from the initial concept and why specific
locations were chosen over others.
• The proposed buildings could be placed anywhere in the world; what about this site in
Baltimore’s Inner Harbor has shaped the buildings? If the team feels the building is in the
wrong place, then it can be shifted. If not, then show the Panel why it is properly
located. Either way, it needs to be studied for that conversation to happen.
§ Based on studies of the building form, the environments and public space will shift again
and need to be solved. There is quite a bit of work left ahead for this project. The team is encouraged to be flexible as the process continue.
On the first day of February the team returned with the exact same design but with a lot more material to explain why the design looks the way it does.
UDAAP usually wants to see and participate in how a project evolves. The reverse process in which a completed design is explained after the fact was highly unusual. An observer was left with the nagging impression that sketches and explanations were offered to justify a design that had already been completed and couldn't be altered and that some of those images may have even been produced for this meeting and not as part of the design evolution. Reviewer and architect Pavlina Ilieva observed that "Normally at a presentation of the masterplan concept level not so much is already realized"
Nevertheless the explanations were illuminating and UDAAP was appreciative of the effort,even though not entirely satisfied that things have to be the way they were presented.
In all, UDAAP members once again told MCB and lead architect Gensler that revisions were needed to their highly debated plan to redo the city's iconic Inner Harbor site.
And that includes the "character" of the project itself, says Osborne Anthony, a UDAAP member.
"I get the feeling just looking at it, that it’s beginning to take on an air of exclusivity and I’m a bit concerned about that," Anthony said. "In my mind, Baltimore is not chic. It’s a gritty area, it’s blue-collar. Its history stands for itself." (BBJ)
Below I will show most of the images that were presented as screenshots to explain the design, many of which had not been previously shared. Where applicable I share design reviewer comments per my notes.
(All images MCB)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQsCp42Ucr8gH-HmnMeA6lAOuUrlGjXsIapPKuuj8-t7f8sqrxZE7L0rNg9_Xpr-SO5NqMrmJcMGG6qIQV7xuGaAmAIkFHGHFo9tuafDUPKGcKXRRskIXj8zBnq_vHWZVw7oaOCftaRCg-BNOTLfYFLk_kcgnI7TM3dJRc9v7J2n6mJOzaOYFgS-m0-rRq/w400-h181/birs%20eye%20rendering.png) |
Birds eye view of the assembly of proposed buildings |
Pavlina Ilieva comment:
A building like the sail needs room to breathe. It needs space around it.![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkWXoFtXilQZcroKuXH_In3um5xoqEeENl-8nNS4nW7sjyD0EKBgI0yA8p-XIWhBWcc6Ihji5WusMPclQWywb_Y_ELCKR2FiFvYhw95O23CBnG_x6ZalarIX-FvxyvwouZyO_2GrhZnk35z6RcXTMg761eIgOt8WTTET0T0IX5zjdz3BToha0vq1yWqh5B/w400-h250/Eye%20level%20rendering%20looking%20southwest.png) |
Ground level view from near where the Constellation docks looking southwest |
.Pavlina Ilieva comment:
What will this look like on a Tuesday when the crowds aren't there? How does this space feel like when the people are not there.? Will it have intimacy and feel welcome. What will people do there?
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