PB PlaceMaking - Maryland Department of Transportation

Richmond Market Renderings (now the
5th Regimental Armory)
18 State Center Transit Oriented Development Strategy
Site Context
• Demonstrating market success for the types of new rental and
for-sale developments that have been successfully developed
in nearby areas but not yet in the State Center area.
• Replacing the concentration of obsolete public housing in a
manner that assures existing public housing residents that they
can remain in the area and move into new, well designed
family housing.
• Changing negative perceptions and a lack of positive identity
for the area.
• Coordinating the activities of multiple large public agency
landowners (State, City, universities, etc.) that may have
different objectives and timelines for action.
• Financing public investment in physical improvements and
assistance to early catalyst projects that set the stage to attract
substantial new private investment.
By building on the existing cultural and educational institutions of
the increasingly vibrant Cultural Center to the east, the opportunity
exists to strengthen the area to become one of the city’s most
attractive arts, entertainment, retail and residential districts. This new
and vibrant multi-use area could serve as a bridge to reconnect and
reenergize some of the city’s most diverse and historically significant
communities and resources.
This ambitious project has the potential to:
• Provide for the adaptive reuse of one of Baltimore’s most
distinctive historic structures – the 5th Regimental Armory;
• Build a linkage between the grand landscaped pedestrian
boulevards that run from Mount Vernon’s Washington Square
along Eutaw Place to Druid Hill Park;
• Reconnect the classic row house neighborhoods and gracious
public spaces of Bolton Hill and Seton Hill, now isolated
urban islands;
• Provide new housing choices that allow existing residents to
remain, while attracting a broad range of new households to
the area; and
• Provide a spark for the renaissance of Baltimore’s most storied
Afro-American cultural neighborhoods, the famous music and
dance district that once graced Pennsylvania Avenue in Upton-
Marble Arch.
One reason that the proposed redevelopment project holds such
promise is that it could provide a new connection between these
communities without changing the rich and diverse historic
character that make them unique and important parts of Baltimore
City’s heritage.