Charles Center:Open Up!

Now when I look at Charles Center what I see is a cocoon. Before Charles Center was built the land that occupied was that of a caterpillar. What Charles Center has failed to do (and this was done very intentionally) was turn into a Butterfly. Fly Charles Center Fly!
Urban planning in the 1950s and 1960s only looked at small parcels and not on a grander scale. In an effort to keep businesses in the City a group of Civic Leaders including Jim Rouse came together to plan Charles Center. The plan was critically acclaimed but at the same time with Suburban Flight the order of the day critics had the "this will never get built in my lifetime mentality." Well, the joke was on them because Charles Center was built and with it came the Inner Harbor and surrounding neighborhoods.
Charles Center was and is a fortress. Charles St and Cathedral/Liberty/Hopkins Pl act as a moat, keeping everyone and everything out. That was how it was done back then. Now, as neighborhoods surrounding Charles Center have gentrified and will continue to do so it's time for Charles Center to open up.Signs of redevelopment and reinvestment in Charles Center are already popping up. The Shuttered Mechanic Opera House will be redeveloped into a new Theatre with retail and either apartments/condos or a hotel above. The old Hamburgers Department store has become a Superfresh, Downtown's only full service Grocery Store. One thing that redevelopment and reinvestment in Charles Center has failed to do was reopen it to its surroundings.
On the plus side, it's not too late. The redevelopment of the old Mechanic Opera House hasn't begun in fact the old building's still standing. Now, what do I mean by "opening up" Charles Center? Well, in order to close off Charles Center several streets were cut up to close it off. Fortunately, in almost all cases the streets that were closed off weren't replaced by buildings but by open space.
The streets that were sacrificed in the name of Charles Center were Lexington St., Clay St., and Redwood St. going east west, and Hanover St. going north south. These streets can easily be reopened to traffic by relocating parking garage entrances. These open spaces are not frequently used the planners of Charles Center had hoped for. I don't consider them to be a big loss especially with my proposed expansion of Preston Gardens one block to the east.
For Redwood St., the Kaiser Permanente Building will have to be redeveloped and moved else where along the new Redwood St. The plans for the new Mechanic Opera House and its retail and residences would have to be revised.For Lexington St. no buildings would have to be moved, there's a clear path just waiting on either side. Closing off Lexington St. is nothing new as this was done blocks to the west which I'm also proposing be reopened.
Clay St., like Lexington also does a disappearing and reappearing act throughout Downtown and Charles Center is no exception. This will no doubt be the trickiest street restoration in Charles Center. First off, it's blocked by a parking garage entrance, second, it's multi level, third the Superfresh and a slew of restaurants are here.
The Restaurants are configured into one building and layed out as a Food Court known as "Eats" I doubt with its limited view from Charles St. that Eats will stay busy for long. It doesn't look like it's been in existence for very long. Not more than a few years. Regardless, its lay out is pure Charles Center; blocked off. The parking garage entrance will be easy to relocate but redeveloping eats? I'm not so sure.The entrance to Superfresh can be easily relocated to Saratoga St. rather than its obstructed Charles St. location. Relocating the doors to Superfresh will allow for the redeveloped Eats to face Charles St. unobstructed. Each Restaurant in the new Eats will have its own entrance/exit and will be accessible by car whether it's on Charles St. or the new Clay St. In other words it won't be in its current food court format. Also, the levels of this particular open space will be flattened for accessibility.
The only north south street that ran directly through Charles Center was Hanover St. It wouldn't make any sense to extend this street because it won't lead anywhere. Charles Center is very narrow and in most cases its eastern and western borders are only a block away. Well Charles Center, its time you emerged from your cocoon and became a Butterfly. In other words, Open Up!

Has Charles Center Already Run Its Course?

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!