In her monthly “Letter from Baltimore,” Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson writes about architecture, culture, and urbanism in a city more often associated with violent crime than with good design. Click here to read her previous posts. For more by Dickinson, visit her blog, Urban Palimpsest.

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For as long as I can remember, designers and educators in Baltimore have invoked the name of the Rural Studio. They looked south to Hale County and wondered how to adapt Mockbee’s full-immersion program for design students in an urban setting like Baltimore. The conversations were, pardon the pun, purely academic. In spite of a high number of colleges and universities in the region—with several programs in architecture, planning, and landscape design—curricula rarely called for students to venture beyond the quadrangle (save for the requisite study-abroad programs). Read more…

In her monthly “Letter from Baltimore,” Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson writes about architecture, culture, and urbanism in a city more often associated with violent crime than with good design. Click here to read her previous posts. For more by Dickinson, visit her blog, Urban Palimpsest.

Photo: Chrissy Nesbitt (detail) from A Public Space: Hopkins Plaza

It begins with six photographs. Paul Druecke asks six people to snap photos of the same urban public space. Those individuals then invite one person to do the same, and so on until 24 people have photographed the setting.

The Milwaukee-based artist began his project, A Public Space, in 2003, while living in Chicago. “Going into it, it was very experiential,” Druecke says. “I like to do a lot of walking and am fascinated with public spaces and the sense of self in relationship to the city. I wanted to create a system that gets other people to experience the place as well.” Read more…

In her monthly “Letter from Baltimore,” Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson writes about architecture, culture, and urbanism in a city more often associated with violent crime than with good design. Click here to read her previous posts. For more by Dickinson, visit her blog, Urban Palimpsest.

John Ruppert’s Orb, on the grounds of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Ruppert’s sculpture helped earn him a prestigious Mary Sawyer’s Baker Prize this spring. All photos by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson unless otherwise noted.

When you see John Ruppert’s Orb from a distance, it looks as though a large soap bubble has floated to a landing. Draw closer and you realize that the seemingly delicate sphere is, in fact, fabricated from industrial chain link. Read more…

The Member’s Club at Pimlico Race track in the 1950s

Moments ago, it was announced  that Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird will, in fact, run the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore on May 16. Thus the stage is set for another dramatic race and potential upset by this Canadian gelding. Pimlico Race Track, home of the Preakness, has witnessed many a great showdown since it first opened in 1870, not the least of which was the famous 1938 standoff between Seabiscuit and War Admiral. The event in two weeks may well go down in history, but not just for the horses that take to the dirt track. On the eve of its 140th anniversary, the historic Pimlico may be razed to make way for a shopping mall. Read more…

Sinclair (center) talks strategy with a group of Baltimore city activists.

The social networking sites lit up last night after Cameron Sinclair gave a lecture in Baltimore about his organization, Architecture for Humanity. Among the many comments flowing between Facebook friends and Twitterers were several architects questioning why they had not started their own AFH chapter in the city. This has been a hot topic in Baltimore for the last year as architects, designers, community activists, teachers, cultural leaders, and others look for ways to galvanize efforts around social justice and design. As Sinclair took to the streets of Baltimore this morning for a tour of some of its most disenfranchised neighborhoods, it became evident that there is already a very powerful force at work in the fight for better communities: design students. Read more…

The test case: What would you do with this empty lot?

Vacant lots plague many of our cities and the current economic realities threaten to increase this urban challenge. But what if vacancy was recast as an opportunity instead of a problem? This is the premise behind the Baltimore Infill Survey. Read more…