AIA Baltimore announced the Baltimore architecture firm Quinn Evans as the winner of a design competition for the new Architecture and Design Center today. The center is to be established at the former Staples store in One Charles Center facing Fayette Street and is scheduled to open early 2020.
With a design selected AIA now can convert the 3,600 square feet space retail area below the iconic Mies van der Rohe tower which has stood vacant for years after the office supply store left. Also vacant is the former Hamburger clothing store across the street which owner Peter Angelos has transformed into the Hopkins downtown center. Hopkins has since moved to Harbor East.The selection of this space was the culmination of a several year long effort to give Baltimore a stronger place in which architecture and design can be celebrated than the current AIA headquarters at 11-1/2 West Chase Street allows.
AIA Baltimore and the Baltimore Architecture Foundation will be relocating from their Mount Vernon headquarters to the Center for Architecture and Design in early 2020. AIA Baltimore plans to sell its current building that it held since since 1988. AIA's move will consolidate architecture oriented functions and give this area of downtown an important boost. The Center will be AIA Baltimore and the Baltimore Architecture Foundation’s new headquarters, and will provide collaborative administrative and program space for allied professional industry, advocacy, and education organizations, including Baltimore Heritage, Inc., the Baltimore Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (Bmore NOMA), the Baltimore Chapter of the Urban Land Institute (ULI Baltimore), the Maryland Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA Maryland), and the Maryland Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA Maryland), and the Charles Street Development Corporation. The Center will also include flexible program and gallery space, and a small retail space for books on Baltimore architecture.
Nine firms submitted qualifications in response to the Request for Qualifications (RFQ). The design jury, comprised of AIA leaders from other AIA chapter and foundation centers for architecture and design, scored the submissions according to the criteria set forth in the RFQ, and made the determination to shortlist 4 firms (rather than 3 as originally planned). Each shortlisted firm was provided with a stipend of $5000 to prepare for the 45 minute presentation and Q&A with the jury on August 1. Documentation on the project was also shared with each team, including the report from the visioning session.
Quinn Evans Architects was selected to design the Baltimore Center for Architecture and Design following a visioning process for programming the space held in May of this year. Quinn Evans Baltimore office used to be Cho Benn Holback and is located in the Mies tower at One Charles Center above the new AIA space.
