A Drastic New Life For Baltimore's Middle Branch Shoreline

20 May 2010 - 8:00am

Baltimore's Middle Branch waterfront has sat unused for years, since its recent decline as an industrial hub. But a developer has a new plan to drastically remake the 52-acre shoreline.

"Dubbed Westport Waterfront, the project is unusual for more than one reason. Its size alone is unprecedented in Baltimore, a 52-acre site that will include 4.8 million square feet of mixed-use development, with 2,000 residential units, two hotels, 300,000 square feet of retail, and a possible soccer arena, an estimated $1.2 billion all told. While other waterfront developments have a hard time attracting public transit because they are not sufficiently dense, the Westport site already has a light rail stop at its center. Turner plans to use that station as the seed of a dense multimodal network, including wide sidewalks and a link to the city’s bike trail."

The project is just getting underway, with wetland restoration and streetwork planned for this year.

Full Story: Baltimore Blues
Source: The Architect's Newspaper, May 17, 2010
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"This ends up being, to be sure, a second best alternative, but it's better than the third best alternative, which is to do nothing." -- Jerold Kayden