Transit to Enhance Communities

The MTA is currently undertaking one of the largest public engagement and participation projects in the country for the Baltimore Red Line. 16 community based Station Area Advisory Committees (SAAC)with 10-15 community members and stakeholders each have started in September 2010 to work for 15 months on the famous "land-use transportation link" that is much talked about but remains elusive for many transit projects. The reason: Transit is planned by a transit agency (in Maryland State owned) and land use is under the control of local jurisdictions.
The planned Baltimore Red Line rail corridor extends from Baltimore County all the way across Baltimore City and is estimated to cost $1.8 billion which will make it the largest public works project in Maryland's entire history.

City and County work in partnership with the MTA and have planning representatives in all committees. To ensure that transit will leverage positive change and investment in the surrounding communities the City of Baltimore initiated a Community Compact. The SAACs are one component of this Compact.

The committees spend the first half of their planning time on the large scale issues ("vision") for their community, i.e. mostly land use. The second half will focus on the design of the transitway and the station itself and discuss how the planned Red Line can be the very best neighbor in the community. SAACs will also make station naming suggestions.


Public meetings will be held to present the committee work at the half time (in May 2011)and near the end.

You can see more about this on www.gobaltimoreredline.com and on www.baltimoreredline.com/

Background: 
 

The Baltimore Red Line  is only one of three “New Starts” transportation projects, that the State is moving forward at this time. The other two are the Purple Line http://www.purplelinemd.com/ and the Corridor Cities Transitway.

At this time both, The Red and Purple Lines are in the same stage of planning, that is they are defined as a Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) and await FTA approval for Preliminary Engineering (PE) expected very soon. Both have a completed Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).  The State has positioned itself as an aggressive pursuer of federal transit dollars with three large projects which are quite defined by now. (two rail, one bus).

Federal funding (for construction) is by no  means sure yet (maximally 50%), it will depend, among many other things on the federal Transportation Bill which needs reauthrization since 2009. The New Starts projects are an example what Obama means when he says he wants to keep infrastructure investment and funding in place. Maryland might jsut get additional FTA dollars for transit after Florida and some others rejected their High Speed Rail funds for ideological reasons.  Any number of studies show, however, that cities and regions with good transit will have a brighter future than those without. 

How much even the most auto oriented places long to have transit is demonstrated by Los Angelos, Phoenix, Charlotte and Houston. All begun to build rail transit and all have already suceeded in creating development and investment in the transit corridors, making many new jobs and housing units less auto dependent.

 Both pictures show the Harlem Park/Poppleton Station Area committees at work. ArchPlan is a facilitator at Rosemont (with Stan Britt, FAIA), West Baltimore and Harlem Park/Poppleton with Mahan Rykiel.

Green Track, the greener way to run trains through cities

ArchPlan, as a member of the Baltimore Red Line design team, was instrumental in proposing green tracks as a way to make the new Red Line an even better neighbor in the streets of Baltimore.

Green tracks have become increasingly popular in Europe, where sleek new light rail vehicles glide over grass carpets as smooth as any American front lawn (Paris, Grenoble Strasbourg, and many other Cities). My hometown of Stuttgart introduced grass track back in the 80ties. I recall a traffic calming effort where I was as Borough Council member one of the instigators. A short-cut traffic connection adjacent to a park in front of a historic bath complex was closed and integrated into the park except for a traversing tram line which was constructed with grass track. As a result the tracks blended perfectly in with the park, car traffic was calmed and transit had the right of way.

The climate in Baltimore can be less forgiving, especially the heat in the summer and the long dry spells can be hard on any vegetation, let alone grass in a median. For this reason MTA started a test program where three areas on the existing light rail line were temporarily set up as an "agricultural" experiment. Instead of the ballast one can see patches of different types of grasses and sedums. Sedum has become popular as a hardy vegetation that works well on green roofs. If you are interested in these test areas, take a look at the vegetation between the tracks north and south of the Cultural Center Light Rail Station or if you live in the suburbs at the Ferndale Station in Anne Arundel County.

The experiment is constantly being evaluated and will be completed at the end of the growing season 2011. It is our hope that at least one of the tested plant materials will do well enough to allow us to includes this design feature into the engineering of the Red Line moving forward now.

Baltimore Light Rail Test Track at Cultural Center

Lost Legends Museum: Passed Design Review

Yesterday was the final design review at the Baltimore City Urban Design and Architectural Review Panel (UDARP) for ArchPlan's Black Athletes, Lost Legends Museum and Sphinx Club restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue in Baltimore. The project was lauded for its strong design and passed the review.

The Pennsylvania Avenue corridor with its legendary Royal Theatre and a number of Social Clubs used to be for Baltimore what parts of Harlem were for New York, a safe area for African American culture and entertainment.

Today the area is heavily disinvested. The local community development corporation Druid Heights CDC is attacking blight on three fronts: New housing, remodeled housing and commercial revitalization along with support strategies of education, foreclosure support, daycare and a host of other services. ArchPlan is proud to assist the DHCDC by providing construction administration for the new homes going up on Baker Street and for the ArchPlan designed 20 rowhouses being rehabilitated from the ground up. 10 of the homes will utilize historic tax credits and include a number of salvaged historic features.

A Bike Rack Ferris Wheel

Bikes have become symbols of the creative class and symbols of forward looking cities. Find bikes parked against meters and on artistically designed bike parking racks and you know you are some place just as the ubiquitous Zip Car spaces and free downtown circulator buses show that this City is not behind the times.

A progressive city shuns surface parking lots and might consider automated car parking structures which take up a lot less space. However, the latest in cool would be the automated bike parking structures sketched out in C.Design. (see below photo and link).

 

 

 

A Bike Rack That Rises in the Sky Like a Ferris Wheel | Co.Design

Open City Baltimore

Lots of life on North Avenue on Friday 4/1 when the Open City exhibit opened in the "Market". MICA students put the artistic urban analysis to work to find what makes Baltimore and Open City or what it would take to make it one.
Go and see it. The exhibit is still open until May with a host of events.





http://www.baltimoreopencity.com/