Ah Charles Center, the Great Grand Daddy of urban redevelopment in Baltimore may have worn out its welcome.
Back in the 1950s Baltimore's Skyline and Downtown was out of date and in need of redevelopment. Urban America was entering its decline and every city had a different way of trying to stem it. Baltimore decided to invest in its Central Business District. Baltimore wanted to keep its upper class jobs centralized. Although this was successful Baltimore's industrial jobs became decentralized and or disappeared and its residents of all income levels fled.
The Boundaries of Charles Center are Saratoga St. to the north Liberty St. to the west, Charles St. to the east, and Lombard St. to the south. This makes the site that would be Charles Center appear to be square or rectangular in shape. With Liberty St. running diagonally the site is actually triangular in shape. Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr. accepted the plan with open arms in 1958.
Charles Center was to be built in phases. In the late 1950s and early 1960s the demand for office space in the city wasn't huge. Tenants took large portions of buildings to keep occupancy up and tenants were occupying Charles Center as a big favor to someone whether on the public or private sector. Urban planning at the time as it does emphasized on walk ability. The buildings had sky ways connecting them together and courtyard plazas tying the buildings together.
With Charles Center still not finished in 1973 when Mayor Theodore R. McKeldin decided to turn things up a notch. He thought that a public and private partnership could be used to redevelop the Inner Harbor the same way with Charles Center. The Inner Harbor plan was also accepted with open arms. Charles Center did not encourage revitalization of neighboring communities like the Inner Harbor did. Mayor William Donald Schaefer introduced the $1 row home imitative to revitalize surrounding communities which was a stellar success that I think should be duplicated in neighborhoods that are currently blighted.
With focus still on the harbor, Charles Center was deemed complete in 1986. It was meant to be and may still be a major transportation hub. When the metro subway opened in 1986 it ran from Owings Mills to Charles Center. The Charles Center station located under Calvert Street was meant for another line to connect to it (The Yellow Line?). The metro subway was quickly extended to Johns Hopkins Hospital. In the 1990s, the west side of Downtown received what it thought was a major shot in the arm with the addition of the Central Light Rail Line. Downtown the Light Rail runs at street level along Howard Street. The Light Rail has a Charles Center stop but being on Howard Street rather than Calvert Street it could not be a transfer station to the metro subway. Come to think of it there aren't any transfer points for Baltimore's two rail lines.
The Inner Harbor began draining business and vitality from Charles Center very slowly from the get go. Businesses both commercial and retail began moving southeast to near the water. The Inner Harbor became the city's show case. Big mixed use development projects like Harbor Place Inner Harbor East and Silo Point that the Inner Harbor spawned only made the trend to continue.
Charles Center was always meant to be almost exclusively office space with ground floor retail, (there is an apartment building in the complex but that wasn't really planned.) Planners of the late 1950s and early 1960s couldn't have possibly predicted the desirability of high density mixed use development. Another thing they couldn't have predicted was that Baltimore wouldn't have redeveloped its rail transit system better after the demise of the streetcar. Parking Garages are now a big and in my opinion unwelcome part of the city's landscape.
Now what does the future hold for Charles Center? Well the trend of mixed use developments near the harbor will continue. Canton Crossing, Westport and Locust Point are a few of them that come to mind. Turning Pratt Street to allow two way traffic will continue to draw people away from Charles Center because they won't go above Pratt Street where they currently don't go above Lombard Street. Earlier in the post I said that surrounding communities haven't benefited from Charles Center. Now these communities are becoming for a new generation of city dwellers. The West Side of Downtown, Mount Vernon, Bolton Hill, Station North, Seton Hill and the State Center redevelopment proposal will be sure to bring attention back to Charles Center.
The answer for Charles Center is if you can't beat 'em join 'em and that what it's essentially is being done. Buildings that were once for offices are beginning to become hotels, apartments, condos, and tourist attracting retail. Then there are the plazas, they have become outdated and are in need of a 21st century make over. One lessen about Charles Center that the new developments can learn is underground parking garages. With the density of Charles Center and the congestion and lack of parking spaces the buildings were forced to dig parking garages, something I'm in favor of. As far as the initial question I posed "Has Charles Center Already Run Its Course?" Not in this life time!
Ah Charles Center, the Great Grand Daddy of urban redevelopment in Baltimore may have worn out its welcome.
Back in the 1950s Baltimore's Skyline and Downtown was out of date and in need of redevelopment. Urban America was entering its decline and every city had a different way of trying to stem it. Baltimore decided to invest in its Central Business District. Baltimore wanted to keep its upper class jobs centralized. Although this was successful Baltimore's industrial jobs became decentralized and or disappeared and its residents of all income levels fled.
The Boundaries of Charles Center are Saratoga St. to the north Liberty St. to the west, Charles St. to the east, and Lombard St. to the south. This makes the site that would be Charles Center appear to be square or rectangular in shape. With Liberty St. running diagonally the site is actually triangular in shape. Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr. accepted the plan with open arms in 1958.
Charles Center was to be built in phases. In the late 1950s and early 1960s the demand for office space in the city wasn't huge. Tenants took large portions of buildings to keep occupancy up and tenants were occupying Charles Center as a big favor to someone whether on the public or private sector. Urban planning at the time as it does emphasized on walk ability. The buildings had sky ways connecting them together and courtyard plazas tying the buildings together.
With Charles Center still not finished in 1973 when Mayor Theodore R. McKeldin decided to turn things up a notch. He thought that a public and private partnership could be used to redevelop the Inner Harbor the same way with Charles Center. The Inner Harbor plan was also accepted with open arms. Charles Center did not encourage revitalization of neighboring communities like the Inner Harbor did. Mayor William Donald Schaefer introduced the $1 row home imitative to revitalize surrounding communities which was a stellar success that I think should be duplicated in neighborhoods that are currently blighted.
With focus still on the harbor, Charles Center was deemed complete in 1986. It was meant to be and may still be a major transportation hub. When the metro subway opened in 1986 it ran from Owings Mills to Charles Center. The Charles Center station located under Calvert Street was meant for another line to connect to it (The Yellow Line?). The metro subway was quickly extended to Johns Hopkins Hospital. In the 1990s, the west side of Downtown received what it thought was a major shot in the arm with the addition of the Central Light Rail Line. Downtown the Light Rail runs at street level along Howard Street. The Light Rail has a Charles Center stop but being on Howard Street rather than Calvert Street it could not be a transfer station to the metro subway. Come to think of it there aren't any transfer points for Baltimore's two rail lines.
The Inner Harbor began draining business and vitality from Charles Center very slowly from the get go. Businesses both commercial and retail began moving southeast to near the water. The Inner Harbor became the city's show case. Big mixed use development projects like Harbor Place Inner Harbor East and Silo Point that the Inner Harbor spawned only made the trend to continue.
Charles Center was always meant to be almost exclusively office space with ground floor retail, (there is an apartment building in the complex but that wasn't really planned.) Planners of the late 1950s and early 1960s couldn't have possibly predicted the desirability of high density mixed use development. Another thing they couldn't have predicted was that Baltimore wouldn't have redeveloped its rail transit system better after the demise of the streetcar. Parking Garages are now a big and in my opinion unwelcome part of the city's landscape.
Now what does the future hold for Charles Center? Well the trend of mixed use developments near the harbor will continue. Canton Crossing, Westport and Locust Point are a few of them that come to mind. Turning Pratt Street to allow two way traffic will continue to draw people away from Charles Center because they won't go above Pratt Street where they currently don't go above Lombard Street. Earlier in the post I said that surrounding communities haven't benefited from Charles Center. Now these communities are becoming for a new generation of city dwellers. The West Side of Downtown, Mount Vernon, Bolton Hill, Station North, Seton Hill and the State Center redevelopment proposal will be sure to bring attention back to Charles Center.
The answer for Charles Center is if you can't beat 'em join 'em and that what it's essentially is being done. Buildings that were once for offices are beginning to become hotels, apartments, condos, and tourist attracting retail. Then there are the plazas, they have become outdated and are in need of a 21st century make over. One lessen about Charles Center that the new developments can learn is underground parking garages. With the density of Charles Center and the congestion and lack of parking spaces the buildings were forced to dig parking garages, something I'm in favor of. As far as the initial question I posed "Has Charles Center Already Run Its Course?" Not in this life time!
