Panel in Baltimore OKs Westport plan, sends Sapperstein back for

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Jul 6, 2007 by Steven Overly

Plans to redevelop two industrial sites garnered mixed responses from the city's architecture review panel Thursday, as developers and city officials debate the future of Baltimore's historically industrial waterfront.

A preliminary master plan for Westport, a 54-acre swath along the Patapsco River's Middle Branch, got the green light from the Urban Design and Architectural Review Board to turn the former home of the Carr-Lowrey glass factory and a BGE power plant into a mixed-use property with residential, retail and commercial space.

Earlier, however, developer Mark Sapperstein's The Shoppes at the Fort project on Woodall Street in Locust Point was rejected by the panel. The mixed-use development, which was previously sent back for redesign for appearing too ornate, was now too dark and simple, panelists said.

Though the criticism of the design seemed to jump from one extreme to the other, first too decorative and now too industrial, Sapperstein said after the meeting that "these comments are minimal [compared] to what you'd expect on a project of this size."

The $80 million development is located on the former site of Chesapeake Paperboard Co. and is scheduled to include 250 apartments, 110,000 square feet of retail, 50,000 square feet of office space, and a parking garage for about 970 cars, he said.

Other aspects of the design sparked criticism from panelists, who said the buildings' exteriors didn't compliment one another and an outdoor plaza was poorly organized.

As review panel member Mark Cameron put it, elements of the design seemed "awkward" and didn't "necessarily make sense for this location."

Sapperstein said he will make the necessary alterations and come back to the board in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, he has received a grading permit and expects construction on a retaining wall near Key Highway to begin in September. The overall project should open in winter 2009 or spring 2010.

During discussion on Westport, panelists praised developer Patrick Turner of Turner Development Group, architect Chris Pfaeffle of Parameter Inc. and Ellen Neises with Field Operations, a New York- based landscape architecture firm, for being so receptive to comments made at a previous meeting and amending the plan accordingly.

Panelists still had concerns about the project, including a desire to more clearly define architectural components of each building, but determined those would be better addressed in coming months when specific guidelines for the site are drafted.

M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's economic development arm, offered a "cryptic" caution to the developers, however, saying that being too receptive can create ambiguity in later stages of development and told them to establish "principles" and hold firm to them.

"Try to delineate the first principles of the plan," Brodie said. "If that's not articulated strongly in a master plan, those things tend to wither away."