The Baltimore Development Corp. is looking for a few good designers who want to remake Pratt Street into a pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare.
Pratt Street, from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to President Street, is scheduled for upgrading and paving in 2007, making now the time for the city to come up with streetscape improvement proposals, BDC President Jay Brody said.
“We want to revisit the design with outside objective eyes looking at Pratt Street and with an openness to creative ideas,” Brody said.
The BDC has launched a call-for-ideas competition, where design consultants are invited to submit a letter of interest and show their qualifications. The lead designer and team members need to be named, and a portfolio of work from the past 10 years should be submitted. All submissions are due by 4 p.m. Nov. 13 to Paul Dombrowski, director of planning and design for the BDC.
Six design consultant teams will be chosen for interviews by the BDC?s review panel. Four design consultants will be chosen after the interviews to submit conceptual designs of their plans. The winning design consultant will be named in 2007, Brody said, and work should begin about 18 months from now.
The design consultant will work under the direction of the BDC with the help of partner agencies, public and private groups and residents interested in the project. The winning concept will be used to generate public and private support for the project and to identify necessary funding needed to complete the project.
The current streetscape along Pratt Street is 10 years old, Brody said, and is “lacking.”
For Martha Lucius, owner of Boheme Cafe on Pratt Street, green space “is the way to go.” She also would like to see more seasonal flowers planted, especially during the spring.
“Planters would be awesome, and get rid of the trash that?s floating in the water,” she suggested.
But one thing can be done immediately to help the flow of tourist and business traffic along Pratt Street.
“We really have to do something with the homeless,” Lucius said. “That is the real streetscape problem.”
Baltimore?s homeless population should be encouraged to use the services and programs already in place, she said.
