Jim Rouse’s "festival market place" concept with the retail pavilions brought with it the retail industry's pattern of re-branding and call for ever new “attractions”. This put the Inner Harbor into a league not only with malls and their famously short fashion spans, but also with amusement parks and beach venues, essentially defining the Inner Harbor as a place of entertainment and amusement.
Maybe it is time to challenge this paradigm. Let's do the unthinkable, and re-think the pattern under which the success of the Inner Harbor operated to date!
After all, should really great locations have to re-brand themselves constantly? Shouldn’t truly great urban places strive for more permanence?
The initial concept of the Baltimore Inner Harbor orchestrated a large frame of economic development around the Inner Harbor (the then USF&G building, the World Trade Center, the then IBM building, the hotels and other buildings) complemented by the original attractions of the Aquarium and the Science Center in the center. They were followed by two conversions of the Power Plant, the Columbus Center, and finally significant expansions of the original attractions themselves. A sleek visitors center rounded out the mix.
What followed later was not always so well planned: Restaurant barges and all kinds of kiosks and ticket buildings, at times even obscuring attractions such as the newly restored Constellation. Tracking this pattern further, The Baltimore Development Corporation issued a request for proposals for “new attractions” this year. ("BDC is seeking written proposals from qualified respondents for the operation of new attractions meant to provide high quality amusement, entertainment, educational, cultural and other positive experiences – outdoors at the Inner Harbor – for visitors of all ages, incomes, abilities and disabilities." BDC RFP 2/11).
The proposals have been in since April, and BDC got what it asked for: Ferris wheels, zip lines, trackless trolleys and the like. Those ideas stand in stark contrast to the photo of the working port under which BDC advertised the RFP and in contrast with the original concept of seeing the harbor as an attraction for residents and business as well.
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| Image from the BDC website where the request for proposals is advertised |
The photo might contain a solution to the problem of what should be the theme and defining pattern for the Inner Harbor. In the very early stages of the “renaissance” the warehouses along Light and Pratt Street had given way to an urban park on the water's edge. Once the fathers and mothers of the Inner Harbor added visiting tall ships, these parks became such a success that Rouse's Festival pavilions almost were defeated in a referendum. At that time, it was all about opening up the waterfront, removing filth and decay to serve the people of Baltimore. It was also about jobs and about urban renewal. That 15 million tourists eventually would come to see the Inner Harbor (a BDC figure) was not even in the dreams of the early visionaries.
However, they did come. And, as every Baltimorean knows, they took over, to such an extent that BDC now only mentioned the visitors in their RFP, not the residents!
The Greater Baltimore Committee and Ayers Saint Gross architects should be commended for picking up on the misery of our current Inner Harbor discussion and elevating it to higher levels with their proposals submitted to and published by the SUN. (Business leaders propose walking bridge, light shows, waterfront park for Inner Harbor).
The proposed pedestrian bridge would certainly be a functional attraction, allowing connectivity and water-views without stepping on a boat. The bridge would open up to let taller ships pass through, and that could be an attraction in itself. However, it could also further reduce the scale of the already small body of water that we call Inner Harbor.
The proposals for Rash Field correctly envision a quality open space, a kind of resting space on the busy edges along the water, certainly a space that should also be used by locals.
But maybe it is time to go back to the early roots of the harbor renewal, its careful planning and the celebration of water and the ships. The Port of Baltimore, a mile down the Patapsco, is a source of pride for this city, the region and the state, and a huge economic engine that makes us different from Nashville or Pittsburgh. It is the #1 East Cost US port for roll-on roll-off "bulk" goods and ranks on place two or three for automobile shipping. The modern port is serious business, with huge ships, portal cranes, tug boats, jobs and time pressures. It is not a place to send the tourists, and most residents have probably not been among the portal cranes either. But it can provide the guidance and themes for the celebration of water and ships.
It is just that somewhat stealth quality of the port that would make its workings to be such a good theme for the Inner Harbor, our historic port. Wouldn't it be interesting to "theme" the Inner Harbor as Baltimore's global gateway, as the portal to the cities to which we used to maintain passenger shipping lines, such as Bremen and Liverpool, or the other big port cities such as Shanghai, Rotterdam, Singapore, Hamburg? To celebrate trade and immigration (Baltimore was the second largest port of entry after Ellis Island. Remember (Barry Levinson’s "Avalon"?); to celebrate the exchange and openness that always has characterized seafaring nations and cities? Couldn't the World Trade Center live up to its name, and house exhibits and information about shipping, trade and other distant ports in addition to generic offices? Couldn’t the topic "shipping" be expanded to include America's first railroad, the B&O, originating right here in Baltimore?
The fact that our historic Constellation vessel is partly obscured by its own ticket vending building has been cause for much derision. But what about the fact that we obscured pretty much the water itself as well with all the piers, marinas, paddle boat corrals, floating restaurant barges and the entertainment and amusement clutter that is so pervasive at the Inner Harbor that it makes residents shudder and leave the place to the tourists altogether?
Look in front of the Power Plant Live building, reincarnated twice as the ground zero of generic urban chain restaurants such as the Hard Rock Cafe. Yes, there is a nice body of water between the Aquarium and the Power Plant building, but one can barely see it from Pratt Street because a broad, heavy pedestrian bridge which cuts across so low that not even a really low boat would make it through, not to mention views. Wouldn't it be great if here the stern or bow of a big ship would loom over Pratt Street? Or at least a tug boat? Something that says port, harbor, ships and marine economy and that would balance that gigantic neon guitar? And yes, right behind the Power Plant, where today the Columbus Center (failed of as a hybrid of marine biology research and visitor attraction) and the dumpsters and service trucks of the Power Plant meet, there is also water and another opportunity for a big ship. Think of Portland, Maine and its harbor with fishing boats, a fish market and authentic fish restaurants as defining elements of its waterfront. Wouldn't a fish market between the Power Plant and the Columbus Center a useful attraction for residents and visitors alike? It would also obscure a bit the Pier V hotel which would look too suburban even at Lake Kittamaqundi in Columbia, not to mention the tired pier six concert pavilion surrounded by a sea of parking!
Our proud history in trade, shipping, immigration, railroading and now cruises is fragmented all over the City, and not told in a comprehensive way. What better place to do this than our Inner Harbor? What better topic to "theme" the Inner Harbor in a genuinely Baltimore manner?
Thus, we open a new chapter for the future of our crown jewel, away from urban amusement parks, away from the short-lived fashion focus of malls and retail, and towards the information city of the 21st century, which once again can become an economic engine, a place of innovation, a mecca of ideas and exchange, a hub and a great place for all its citizens to live and work.
What better model for this vision than our own history as a shipping port and railroad city? The entry point for tens of thousands of immigrants that came here by boat as well as the shipping point for millions of tons of goods to and from the entire eastern half of the nation.
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| This is how we cut off the water from Pratt Street (in front of the Power Plant) |
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