Location: Baltimore, MA
Completed: Ongoing
Size: 6 Acres
Budget: N/A
Services: Landscape Architecture
Program
The final development parcel at Harbor Point is the most ambitous of the five discreet building projects which comprise the district. The scope of the development (a master parcel divided into north and south development pads) includes 150,000 to 200,000 SF of office space, 450 to 500 residential units, a boutique hotel and almost 60,000SF of retail space.
Set along the north east shore of the district, the cluster of architectural towers is wrapped by a waterfront promenade, and bounds Chrome Works park. The project’s ground plane is punctuated by an arrival court, a naturalized extension of Baltimore’s promenade, and an active streetscape environment.
Above the site development, a series of rooftop open spaces adorn the towers, stepping into and out from the building envelope, creating dramatic terraces of green activation for a multitude of uses.
Artists conceptual renderings depict the scale and grandeur of the proposed development. iO Studio’s initial design explorations explored the design of the auto-court, promenade, and interface between the overall Parcel 1 development and the adjacent Chrome Works Park. Future work will include the design of the project’s multiple roof deck amenity spaces.
Images courtesy of Beatty Development / KPF Architects
Acknowledging the Past, Embracing the Future
The signature space in the development is the plaza between the north and south buildings. The predominantly paved space, is influenced by the existing Central Plaza to the east, pulling various threads of that landscape through the space from east to west. The axial arrangement acknowledges the long, longitudinal order of the development, framing vistas to the Inner Harbor and creating a celebratory statement at the plaza’s west edge, where the space transitions 14’ to the promenade below.
The site design is also comprised of a plaza level podium which wraps the buildings on the south, west and north sides, and the waterfront promenade which extends along the water’s edge, connecting the district to Fell’s Point to the east and Harbor East to the north.
The aesthetic character of the site transitions between hard, urban lines, referencing the industrial history of the site, and the soft, natural expression of the promenade.
This final installation in the open space network of Harbor Point brings full circle the interpretive story that weaves together narratives of a City’s proud, but marred industrial past and a rich regional ecology, while casting the hard lessons learned during the transitions away from America’s age of industry in a forward thinking, aspirational light.
Early concept exploration of the arrival court.
Transitions
In addition to establishing a unique sense of place for the environs around the building, the site design establishes clear pedestrian connections between the upper plaza landscape and the park and promenade below. These transitions have been designed to serve as both path and place, employing terraces, sittable stairs and interstitial gathering areas.
The design also address the convergence of vehicuar and pedestrian traffic in the plaza, creating clearly delineated, and handsomely executed zones for each.
The planting scheme pulls inspiration from the palette established at the central plaza. The relatively narrow aperture of the parcel one plaza dictated the location of plantings to the center of the space extending the long ribbon of planting along the southern edge of the central plaza, to a landscaped median in the vehicular portion of the plaza. After this period of extensions and compression, the landscape structure open toward the plaza’s west end, where it frames views to the harbor beyond.
Conceptual Diagram communicating the threading of the landscape at the central plaza through the drop-off environment at Parcel One
Design explorations for the terraced landscape at the west end of the drop-off considered several scenarios for accommodating ADA access along the 14’ transition between the podium landscape and the promenade below.
All of the design solutions considered the dual use of stairs and ramps as both opportunities tomove through space and resting within it. Stairs pull apart to become terraces and ramps slide to become seats and to allow for the insertion of plantings.
The final design solution struck a harmonious balance between the sliding vocabulary of the orthogonal geometries influencing the site and the casual meander of the pathway that winds its way through the space from the upper podium environment and the promenade.
Renderings of the initial concept development for the terraced landscape at the west end of the arrival court.