February 2007 Issue by Urbanite LLC

february 2007

B A LT I M O R E â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S

C U R I O U S

COLD PLAY HUNKER DOWN INDOORS WITH SOME OF THE LATEST IDEAS IN DIY

history in the making an ambitious stone hill rehab playing with fire The perfect ingredients for an outdoor winter feast The Naked Avenger and Friends Tales from a Baltimore neighborhood

issue no. 32

F O R

urbanite march 07

MILLRACE CONDOS New 1-2 bedroom condominiums in historic Clipper Mill Easy commuting and Light Rail connection at your doorstep Adjacent to the hiking-biking trails of the wooded Jones Falls Valley Spectacular community pool in the center of a lively neighborhood Now selling — Priced from the $300’s For more Information: 410-243-1292 or www.ClipperMillLiving.com

VILLAGE LOFTS New loft-style, 1-2 bedroom condominiums in Charles Village Smart city living with extraordinary amenities Spacious gourmet kitchens and private balconies Where modern conveniences meet vintage neighborhood charm Now selling — Priced from the $300’s For more Information: 410-243-0324 or www.village-lofts.com

FRANKFORD ESTATES Stylish new East Baltimore town homes, duplexes and single-family homes Urban energy with tree-lined tranquility Numerous floor plans and models to suit your lifestyle Beautifully landscaped neighborhood with pool and clubhouse Phase III closeout —Priced from the $300’s - only 8 left For more information: 410-325-8838

OVERLOOK CLIPPER MILL New contemporary park homes in historic Clipper Mill Green designed and uncomprable green features and options Easy access to Light Rail and hiking and biking trails Spectacular community pool Pre-construction sales have begun - priced from the $400’s For more information: 410-243-1292 or www.clippermillhomes.com

THE OLMSTED Premier 1, 2 and 3 bedroom condominiums in Charles Village All of the finest qualities and innovations in urban architecture Neighborhood on the cutting edge of art, music and higher learning The fusion of function and fun—And certified Green Preview sales begin 2006—Priced from the $300’s For more Information: 410-243-0324

1209 NORTH CHARLES Contemporary new 1-2 bedroom condominiums This is life, artfully done At the gateway to Mt. Vernon in the heart of culture and entertainment The synergy of style and sophistication A celebrated landmark building with new architecture and amenities Now selling— Priced from the upper $200’s For more information: 410-685-0142 or www.twelve09living.com

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F O R

B A LT I M O R E ’ S

C U R I O U S

issue no. 32

This month’s cover is a drawing by artist Warren Linn featuring wallpaper designed by Abbott Miller for KnollTextiles (pictured is the Merge design, one of three typographically inspired designs in “The Grammar Collection”). Linn was asked by us to think about home, nesting, and DIY projects, and to play with the idea of “wallpapering the city.” He came to this solution by doing “loads of freewheeling drawings looking for the right feeling or expression,” he says. Most of this was done by hand, a mix of collage, ink, and paint.

2007

f e a t u r e s

february

cover note:

COLD PLAY HUNKER DOWN INDOORS WITH SOME OF THE LATEST IDEAS IN DIY

HISTORY IN THE MAKINg AN AMbITIOUS STONE HILL REHAb PLAYINg WITH FIRE THE PERFECT INgREDIENTS FOR AN OUTDOOR WINTER FEAST THE NAKED AvENgER AND FRIENDS TALES FROM A bALTIMORE NEIgHbORHOOD

history in the making while rehabbing a classic stone hill home, a local couple uncovers a piece of baltimore’s abolitionist past by karen houppert

after spending the last year deeply immersed in restoring their newly acquired 1804 house in the stone hill section of hampden, mark thistel and robyne lyles have had a crash course in architectural history, a smattering of carpentry, a taste of archeological forensics, and a hands-on tutorial in negotiating the linguistically dense bailiwicks of engineers, plumbers, and electricians. see inside this ambitious historic rehab.

the next big thing the woman credited with reinventing wallpaper considers the future of interior design by alice ockleshaw

baltimore’s latest celebrity might not be a household name, but in the right circles, marybeth shaw is a legend. the 43-year-old architectural designer and co-owner of shaw-jelveh design is credited with being the driving force behind the renaissance of wallpaper, a material long considered dowdy and outdated. shaw discusses her company’s big aspirations and the newest trend in interiors.

stop! it’s hammer time! instead of buying things, more and more people are making them. have no fear—you can touch this. by marianne amoss

crafting has become hip again, in baltimore and in cities across the country. we tell you why, and then how to put your own creative muscles to work with a tear-out project sheet.

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departments

what you’re saying

what you’re writing

corkboard

have you heard …

food: play with fire

got something on your mind? this is the place for feedback from readers

original, nonfiction essays written by readers. this month, the topic is “saturday night.”

six not-to-miss events around town

people, places, and things you should know about

gather wood, friends, and food for a fire-pit feast by francine halvorsen

35 31

baltimore observed: the longest three miles freshman justin jones struggles to bridge the gap between his northeast baltimore home and the johns hopkins university campus by lionel foster

encounter: the naked avenger and friends a love letter to a baltimore street by heather harris

space: urban oasis how a cohousing development became the most luxurious affordable housing in silver spring by elizabeth a. evitts

63 42

sustainable city: the state of sprawl in the second of a two-part series on regional development, urbanite talks with local economist anirban basu about the predicted population growth in maryland by amy cynkar

out there: a tale of three cities urban governments get hip to how design can make for affordable housing by brian baker

recommended

resources

eye to eye

books, bands, exhibits, and more

further reading on topics covered in this issue

a closing thought, curated by creative director alex castro

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AmuseUrbanite.pdf

9/27/06

4:39:35 PM

To agesys for 0-10 6

Best of Baltimore 2006

Urbanite Issue 32 February 2007 Publisher Tracy Ward Durkin Tracy@urbanitebaltimore.com Creative Director Alex Castro General Manager Jean Meconi Jean@urbanitebaltimore.com Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth A. Evitts Elizabeth@urbanitebaltimore.com Guest Editor Allison Arieff

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Editor Marianne Amoss Marianne@urbanitebaltimore.com Copy Editor Angela Davids

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Executive Editor Heather Harris Heather@urbanitebaltimore.com

1623 Thames Street Baltimore, MD 21201

410 • 342 • 5000

Contributing Editors William J. Evitts, Joan Jacobson, Susan McCallum-Smith Contributing Writer Jason Tinney Editorial Interns Sheri J. Booker, Saaret E. Yoseph Design/Production Manager Lisa Macfarlane Lisa@urbanitebaltimore.com Traffic/Production Coordinator Bellee Gossett Bellee@urbanitebaltimore.com Designer Jason Okutake Contributing Photographer Gail Burton Web Coordinator George Teaford Administrative/Photography Assistant La Kaye Mbah Senior Account Executive Susan R. Levy Susan@urbanitebaltimore.com Account Executives Rebekah Oates Rebekah@urbanitebaltimore.com Kristin Pattik Kristin@urbanitebaltimore.com Bill Rush Bill@urbanitebaltimore.com Bookkeeper/Sales Assistant Michele Holcombe Marketing Kathleen Dragovich Kathleen@urbanitebaltimore.com Catrina Cusimano Catrina@urbanitebaltimore.com Founder Laurel Harris Durenberger Advertising/Editorial/Business Offices P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211 Phone: 410-243-2050; Fax: 410-243-2115 www.urbanitebaltimore.com Editorial inquiries: Send queries to the editor-in-chief (no phone calls, please). The magazine is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork. Urbanite does not necessarily support the opinions of its authors. To subscribe or obtain assistance with a current subscription, call 410-2432050. Subscription price: $18 per year. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission by Urbanite is prohibited. Copyright 2007, Urbanite LLC. All rights reserved. Urbanite (ISSN 1556-8105) is a free publication distributed widely in the Baltimore metropolitan area. If you know of a location that urbanites frequent and would recommend placing the magazine there, please contact us at 410-243-2050. Postmaster: Send address changes to Urbanite Subscriptions, P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211.

urbanite march 07

editor’s

quotes

note

A good home must be made, not bought. —Joyce Maynard, writer

photo by Sam Holden

F O R B A LT I M O R E ’ S C U R I O U S

I’ve been mulling over something that Allison Arieff said recently. This month’s guest editor, Allison has seen her share of home interiors. She was one of the founding editors at Dwell and served as its editor-in-chief for several years. She continues to write about the latest trends in design, green building, and prefab. In preparation for this “nesting” themed issue, I was interested in hearing about all of the good stuff that she’s uncovered during her years reporting on the housing market, but it was her personal experience as a homebuyer that stuck with me. She told me of her recent house hunt in San Francisco, and how, when walking into newly constructed homes, she often felt like she was walking into the same kitchen and bathroom over and over again. Like a bad case of development déjà vu. I knew exactly what she was talking about. Anyone who has entered the housing market in the last few years has certainly noticed a trend toward cookie-cutter design. Real estate ads read a bit like a Mad Lib filled in by the same person: “New, _____________ townhouse with ______________ counters and an ___________ plan with _____________ tile …” We launched into a conversation about the market for housing in our country right now, and why it is increasingly difficult for developers to finance and realize unique, affordable, well-designed homes (a topic that Urbanite has addressed in the past and will continue to cover in future issues). Homebuilders these days so frequently replicate a standard model with very little variation, fueled in part by our entrenched and accepted system of financing, appraisal, and standardized construction models. It is a system that has them designing for an anonymous, future homeowner (who appears to really, really love granite). But this isn’t just about developers. We live in a real-estate-crazed market and our houses, in many cases, have come to represent a fiscal endeavor more than a home. I’ve watched well-intentioned homeowners dilute their renovation plans in the name of resale value. They design for that same anonymous future homeowner. I’ll never forget the friends who embarked on just such an endeavor, sacrificing their own design taste for a more bland aesthetic. When I asked why, they responded, “it’s good for when we want to sell.” Of course they had no plans to sell in the near future, this was “just in case.” I think that’s what first attracted me to Robyne Lyles and Mark Thistel, the homeowners profiled in this month’s feature “History in the Making.” Robyne and Mark bought a two-hundredyear-old historic home that needed a lot of work. I walked through the home in the weeks just after they took ownership. It was evening and the house had no electricity at the time, but even then I could tell what they were facing. The sturdy stone walls and structural construction were solid, but the house, neglected for years, was a mess. A real mess. They have since spent the last year of their lives immersed in one hell of a rehab. Robyne and Mark didn’t see their ambitious renovation of this Stone Hill house as an investment to round out their financial portfolio; they saw it as an investment in community, in history, in family. In a time when many worry that cookie-cutter development is usurping historic fabric, the Marks and the Robynes of the world should be celebrated for their investment in Baltimore. In this issue we look at some thoughtful and dedicated homeowners, designers, and developers who are bucking the status quo.

HOME OUGHT TO BE OUR CLEARINGHOUSE, THE PLACE FROM WHICH WE GO FORTH LESSONED AND DISCIPLINED, AND READY FOR LIFE. —Kathleen Thompson Norris, American novelist

WINTER IS NATURE’S WAY OF SAYING,

“UP YOURS.”

—Robert Byrne, American author and billiards expert

THERE IS NOTHING LIKE STAYING AT HOME FOR REAL COMFORT . —Jane Austen, British novelist

I PREFER WINTER AND FALL, WHEN YOU FEEL THE BONE STRUCTURE OF THE LANDSCAPE—THE LONELINESS OF IT, THE DEAD FEELING OF WINTER. SOMETHING WAITS BENEATH IT, THE WHOLE STORY DOESN’T SHOW. —Andrew Wyeth, American realist painter

WHEN I LEARN SOMETHING NEW — AND IT HAPPENS EVERY DAY—I FEEL A LITTLE MORE AT HOME IN THIS UNIVERSE, A LITTLE MORE COMFORTABLE IN THE NEST. —Bill Moyers, American journalist and commentator

—Elizabeth A. Evitts

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urbanite march 07

contributors

behind this issue

photo by William Earley

photo by Phipps/Kaye

courtesy of Francine Halvorsen

Brian Baker Brian Baker is a freelance journalist based in Glasgow, Scotland. He writes for magazines and websites based both in Europe and in North America. Baker is a frequent contributor to the Urban Land Institute’s titles Urban Land and Multifamily Trends, to California-based Metro Magazine, and to several weekly and monthly professional titles in the UK. On the Web, he writes regularly for www.CityMayors. com, especially on environmental issues. Baker wrote about innovative affordable housing projects in Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Chicago for this month’s “Out There” department (p. 67).

Francine Halvorsen Freelance journalist Francine Halvorsen’s work has appeared in Food Arts, The Washington Post, and The Baltimore Sun, as well as in various e-zines. She has published four books about food and culture; her fifth, called Crowd-Pleasing Potluck, is forthcoming this spring from Rodale Books. She wrote about fire pit cooking for this month’s “Food” department (p. 31). The Columbia University graduate has traveled extensively; she is also a painter whose work is included in numerous private and public collections and has been shown in various gallery shows.

Karen Houppert This month Karen Houppert wrote about a Stone Hill rehab that uncovered a piece of Baltimore history (p. 48). Houppert, who is new to Baltimore, is doing her own rehab on her one-hundred-year-old home in Charles Village. She has been a contributor to The Nation and a staff writer and editor at The Village Voice, and her work has been published in such magazines as Mother Jones, Glamour, Organic Style, Parenting, and Utne Reader. Houppert’s recently published her second book, Home Fires Burning: Married to the Military—For Better or Worse, the story of a year in the life of various military wives whose husbands have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Anne Gummerson Anne Gummerson has been taking pictures of homes and buildings for more than twenty years, for architects, builders, and designers. She contributes regularly to several Baltimore and Washington, D.C., publications (such as Chesapeake Home, Style, and Washington Spaces) and occasionally to regional and national magazines (including House Beautiful, HOME, and Elle Décor), as well as to numerous home-related books and publications. The Philadelphia native earned a bachelor of arts degree at Goucher College and a master of fine arts degree in photography from Maryland Institute College of Art; she now lives in Fells Point with her family. Gummerson’s photographs accompany Karen Houppert’s article on a Stone Hill rehab (p. 48) in this month’s issue.

As the former editor-in-chief (and founding staff member) of the National Magazine Award-winning design and architecture magazine Dwell, Allison Arieff traveled the globe in search of modern architecture and the people on the forefront of contemporary design. Before joining Dwell in 2000, Arieff worked in book publishing and has authored several books herself, including Prefab and Trailer Travel: A Visual History of Mobile America. She now works for IDEO, a global design and innovation firm in San Francisco, where she lives with her husband and year-old daughter. You can continue to read her insights on her Living Design blog for The New York Times.

courtesy of Allison Arieff

courtesy of Brian Baker

with guest editor allison arieff

Last year

will certainly go down as My Year of Nesting. On December 10, 2005, less than three weeks before I gave birth to our first child, my husband and I moved into a new (actually very old, circa 1907) house. From the time escrow closed to the day before I went into labor, I set about preparing our home for our new arrival. Tip: If you’re having your house renovated, you might consider pretending to be eight-anda-half months pregnant. Few things motivate normally recalcitrant contractors, electricians, and painters to finish the job faster. Using my delicate “condition” to its full advantage, I managed to have the whole house painted; bathroom tiles refinished; dishwasher, washer, and drier purchased then installed; electrical and plumbing upgrades completed; crib and changing table assembled; and (nearly) all boxes unpacked. And a good thing, too, since the days of having more than a half hour to accomplish once mundane tasks such as hanging a picture or planting a plant were over. The hours of 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. became our new period of productivity: carpet tiles laid down, heavy art books shelved, new thermostats and house numbers or teething rings and bouncy chairs ordered online. In the spring when some extra hours of daylight were thrown into the mix, my husband and I would put our daughter down to sleep, turn on the baby monitor, and then run out to the backyard to engage in a little night gardening, going back inside only when we could no longer see the weeds we were trying to clear. Though we’ve now come into the possession of no small amount of cozy new baby blankets, nesting, for us, has had nearly nothing to do with the acquisition of more stuff—in marked contrast to how “nesting” is typically marketed. It has been less about surrounding ourselves with cashmere throws or a flat-screen TV, and rather a more literal, bird-behavior-influenced form of the verb. Having acquired a one-hundred-yearold house, we’ve also acquired a lifetime of home improvement projects: Our focus has been on making our house drier (a new roof); quieter (double-pane windows); warmer (a new fireplace); and more private (a new façade with custom-designed—by us— planters and gate). All the glittery stuff akin to the shiny strand of silver tinsel woven through the bird’s nest has fallen down low on our hierarchy. And though it would be disingenuous for me to say “Wow, we are getting so much pleasure from our new roof!” it is not an exaggeration to speak of the contentment such practical endeavors seem to bring. We are, after all, building this nest for a very important little resident.

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Fine Dining Social eventS ProFeSSional ServiceS

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urbanite march 07

what you’re saying

B A LT I M O R E ’ S

december 2006 issue no. 30

F O R

C U R I O U S

BALTIMORE UNWRAPPED: THE ULTIMATE URBANITE GIFT GUIDE • CREATIVE COMPOSTING: HOW TO GET STARTED THE ROAD TO R & B: HOW SONNY TIL AND THE ORIOLES CHANGED POP MUSIC • CELLULOID CITY: AN INDIE FILM REVOLUTION

Tell Me What You Ate in 1825 In the story “Out of Africa” in the December 2006 issue, the following is printed: “‘Tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you who you are,’ goes a current maxim.” It may be fashionable now, but it is hardly current. The quote in translation comes from Anthelme Brillat-Savarin and dates to no later than 1825. It was popularized by its inclusion in the opening credits to the translated Japanese version of the TV show Iron Chef. —Barrett Buss lives in Columbia.

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Urb30_Wkg.indd 1

Marriage on the Ballot Thank you for the revealing September 2006 article “Marriage Works—Or Does It?” Divorce statistics tell us that most marriages don’t work, and yet this optimistic campaign encourages us to marry just to “earn more money.” Campaign for Our Children has good intentions, but is this the message we want to give to our children? Let’s assume that marriage does work and, as quoted from the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, that “Marriage is an essential institution of a successful society which promotes the interests of children.” If that is true, how sad that November 7th ballot items in a number of states denied marriage’s benefits to the children of lesbians and gays. —Susan Dobry is a teacher who lives in Baltimore.

Embracing Parenthood It is truly sad what happened to Nancy Rome, what with the death of her child and then her marriage. That said, her article, reprinted in The

11/15/06 11:31:17 AM

Washington Post on November 28, 2006 (and originally printed in the September 2006 issue of Urbanite), profiles some truly selfish individuals. With all the hatred, ignorance, and selfishness on exhibit each day, we need more, not fewer, intelligent, caring, funny, fun-loving people to give the gift of life to others. Children don’t change your life for the worse; they enhance, enrich, and deepen it. It is most unfortunate that women bear the brunt of the criticism that comes with not sharing the gift of life. I’m sure there are equally, if not more, selfish men that decide their chosen lifestyle doesn’t “allow” them to accommodate children. Clearly, there are people, Nancy Rome an excellent example, that aren’t capable, suffer tragedy, don’t find a mate, or make a very understandable choice not to have children. What saddens me is the notion among certain “elites” in our society (much more prevalent in Europe than here) that avoiding parenthood is just another lifestyle choice, and one that should be honored and respected. To me it is selfishness verging on emotional corpulence. —Tim Carrier lives in Denver. He is an attorney and a husband and father.

The Facts about Affordability The article “Rhetoric or Reality?” in the November 2006 issue gives a confusing interpretation of the report to the Baltimore City Council on housing affordability. The article states that one-third of Baltimore’s workforce earns between $57,750 and $72,188 a year, but neglects to point out that these figures are not per person but per household, which often includes two incomes. Such figures are critical to properly understanding the article and I believe greater care should have been given to their explanation. —John Gaeng lives in Hamilton and works as a systems administrator at the Johns Hopkins University MSE Library.

Labor Pains If fifty percent of black men in their twenties who lack a college education are jobless, I challenge the need for the day laborer centers sprouting like toadstools around America. The statistic R. Darryl

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Gi ft ce rti fi ca te s a va i l a b l e

Foxworth cited in “Alone at the Table” (November 2006) indicates something is terribly wrong. American businesses proclaim they can’t find Americans to do certain jobs and as a result, either through gratuitous visa programs like the H1-B or by ignoring illegal immigration, they hire foreigners who have broken our laws. Based on recent census data, between twelve million and twenty million illegal immigrants reside and work here. There’s no excuse for the fact that so many black males are out of work; but as long as big business keeps wages suppressed by hiring illegals, the reality won’t change. I fail to understand why the African-American community does not share my outrage. —Rosalind Ellis lives near the Inner Harbor.

in America, so widespread and deep-seated, that it is invisible because it is so normal.” —Leo A. Williams is a retiree and a disabled Korean War veteran.

The Orioles’ Music Lives On … Thanks to Robbie Whelan for such an informative article on Sonny Til and The Orioles (“The Road to R&B,” December 2006). At one point the author states that “Nowadays, this ‘pioneering’ group is hardly mentioned in histories of Baltimore music ...” An important exception is Joseph E. Vaccarino’s 2004 encyclopedia Baltimore Sounds, in which he devotes more than one page to the group, including a list of their recordings from 1948 to 1962.

other doo-wop or vocal harmony groups from the 1940s and 1950s have been forgotten. In fact, I’d argue the opposite. Today there has been a renewed interest in them as part of an increased interest in the roots of R&B and rock and roll. Second, no resources were listed to help readers find out more about The Orioles and, more importantly, to listen to how The Orioles sounded. Read more about The Orioles in Stuart L. Goosman’s Group Harmony: The Black Urban Roots of Rhythm & Blues. Some re-issues of The Orioles’ music are: The Doo Wop Box, Volumes 1 and 2; Best of Doo Wop Ballads; Sonny Til and The Orioles: 50th Anniversary; The Orioles: For Collectors Only; Sonny Til and The Orioles: Greatest Hits; and The Orioles: The Jubilee Recordings. —Allan Holtzman is a reference librarian at the Central Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Race Relations How can blacks such as R. Darryl Foxworth be all that smart when they will go to white people for most of what they want or need? Any black man who is not highly suspicious of white people is crazy, especially given our experience in this country. While it is imperative to remain in touch with reality, it’s important that we know and understand our history. Shirley Chisolm said, “Racism is so universal

photos courtesy of Darren Williams

update

—Bob Jacobson is a social worker, musician, and freelance writer. He lives in Pikesville.

… And On I enjoyed the recent article on The Orioles in Urbanite. I do have two problems with the article: First, the author argues that The Orioles and

We want to hear what you’re saying. E-mail us at mail@urbanitebaltimore.com or send your letter to Mail, Urbanite, P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211. Submissions should include your name, address, and daytime phone number; letters may be edited for length and clarity.

Precision Youth Power Program In September 2004, Urbanite profiled Darren Williams, the founder of Precision Youth Power Program (PYPP), an organization that reaches out to troubled yet talented youth, giving them the opportunity to use their creativity to make music and art. Since the outreach program began in 2002, Williams has encouraged many young men and women to trade their “colors” for a microphone. “We make their dreams come true if they give up drugs, gangs, and truancy,” Williams says. On a Sunday afternoon last fall, six young men ages 16 to 22 met at K-Productions, where owner Kevin Carter provided free studio time to members who had shown academic improvement and to graduates of the program who had maintained employment. The young men engaged in a rap session led by Carter, who gave an overview of music production and marketing. Carter then turned on instrumentals to current radio hits, and the young men hit the stage, performing inspirational lyrics. Williams goes to great lengths to reach out to any young person who wants to be mentored. He meets them on buses and on the corners where they work. He is persistent, and, according to the boys, he keeps his word. “He’s just real about stuff. Nothing else to say,” says 16-year-old David Cousins, a visual artist who recently became a member of PYPP. Emanuel Johnson, a 22-year-old PYPP

graduate, is studying to become a nurse. He was selling drugs on the corners of Gilmor and Baltimore Streets when Williams approached him four years ago. Keith Lawson, 17, a vocalist who will sing for you on the spot, heard about Williams through his best friend, who heard about him through his probation officer. PYPP has been building national acclaim since it offered rehabilitation to a troubled youth who appeared on the Judge Hatchett show in November 2005. Violator Records/Management, a national music company that boasts names like 50 Cent and Busta Rhymes, has arranged for exclusive first rights to hear all the music produced during students’ reward time in the studio. PYPP participants are also preparing to record the theme song for the new T3 tennis shoe created by Trinity Corporation, which will go on sale nationwide and be available in Foot Locker, Downtown Locker Room, and Shoe City. But Williams has not let the recent success of the program blind him to his original mission. “My real aim is to build character and self-esteem and to show there is a different way. Even if they don’t get the record deal, they will always have something to fall back on.” —Sheri J. Booker

From top to bottom: Program participants and members of the positive rap group Quiet Storm: Terrence Blizzard, aka Young‘n Blizzard; James Elliot, aka Lil Cutta; William Horton, aka The Chill; Carol, aka Short Stop w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m m a r c h 0 7

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urbanite march 07

12/19/06

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saturday night

what you’re writing

“What You’re Writing” is the place for creative nonﬁction from our readers. Each month, we pick a topic. Use the topic as a springboard into your own life and send us a true story inspired by that month’s theme. Only nonﬁction submissions that include contact information can be considered. We have the right to heavily edit for space and clarity, but we will give you the opportunity to review the edits. You may submit under “name withheld” to keep your essay anonymous, but you do need to let us know how to contact you. If you’ve already changed the names of the people involved, please let us know. Due to libel and invasion of privacy issues, we reserve the right to print the piece under your initials. Submissions should be typed (and if you cannot type, please print clearly). Only one submission per topic, please. Send your essay to Urbanite, P.O. Box 50158, Baltimore, MD 21211 or to WhatYoureWriting@urbanitebaltimore.com. Please keep submissions under four hundred words; longer submissions may not be read due to time constraints. Due to the number of essays we receive, we cannot respond individually to each writer. Please do not send originals; submissions cannot be returned. The themes printed below are for the “What You’re Writing” department only and are not the themes for future issues of the magazine itself.

Topic

Deadline

Publication

Laughter Possession Anticipation Memory A Day’s Work

Feb 16, 2007 Mar 16, 2007 Apr 13, 2007 May 18, 2007 June 15, 2007

May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 Aug 2007 Sept 2007

Especially on Saturdays (for Guadalupe) Mi madre calls me stupida says no smart girl would go out with a boy who has enough money to own 7 pairs of cowboy boots ~ one pair for each day of the week ~ but no money to pay for my dinner at McDonald’s it’s true, mi madre calls me stupida but she doesn’t see how good he looks in those boots especially on Saturdays. —Felicia Morgenstern is the author of The Night Mother Earth Told Father Sky She was Tired of the Missionary

Position; she divides her time between Baltimore and San Diego.

Saturday night and my wife and I are in New York. After the play and a late supper we’re walking back toward our hotel through the theater district, when we stop at a crosswalk waiting for the signal. I notice a nicely dressed African-American couple a few steps away trying to hail a cab. The street is well lit; there are scores of pedestrians and lots of traffic. Each taxi passes them by. I make eye contact with the fellow and he says to me, “A black man can’t get a cab in this town.” “You don’t really believe that?” I respond.

He gives me a “Don’t you believe it?” look, and I watch and find taxis are, indeed, clearly ignoring him. He takes several steps off the curb and a cab actually swerves to avoid him and stops a few meters farther for someone else. This, I find particularly disturbing. This “white boy” is getting an education. “Let’s see if it’s just bad luck or if you’re right,” I say. With that I shoo the man back to the curb and take up his position. I raise my hand and, like magic, the very next cab pulls over and the driver jams on his brakes. I open the door, wave my new friends in, and nod to the woman who thanks me. The man and I exchange looks: His says, “Unbelievable. New York

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City, twenty-first century, and we still have to put up with this crap.” Mine says, “I feel your pain.” The truth is I’ll probably never be able to fully appreciate what this kind of racism does to a human being and he’ll probably never believe that I really care. —Richard A. Berman lives in Baltimore.

It’s 11:30.

I’ve been sitting outside on the steps of my school waiting for ten minutes wondering where the hell my parents are. A crowd of adrenaline- and caffeine-pumped teenagers linger in the hot summer night talking about how totally awesome the dance was. I actually enjoyed this school function. Dancing with people I had never seen before but seemed to know in a sudden state of vertigo, bodies rubbing against bodies, sweat mingling with sweat, and teenage lust meeting teenage lust. So here I am, soaked to the skin and chugging down soda with abandon. Groups of teens sit around laughing or making out with their dates. Another kid is walking in a slight daze, stoned out of his mind, checking out all the pretty girls in their skimpy dresses. I pass my soda to a guy with long blond dreads, and he takes a long swig. So what if I don’t know him? I feel so helplessly dirty anyway. But my euphoric state soon dissipates, like the white wisps from the smoke machine, and I pray to see someone I recognize from school. My ride finally arrives, and I hop in gratefully, wishing to scrub the sins of the dance off my skin. I guess there are worse ways to spend a Saturday night. —Alexandra Allen, 16, is in her junior year at the Carver Center for Arts and Technology and is focusing on literary arts.

Some people look forward to Saturday night; in fact, this may be the only day they look forward to. I, however, do not. Why should I? To me it’s just a regular day without

going to school. I have work to do and goals to meet, so why not use Saturday nights to help bear my load? Even if I go out, most likely it’s just going to the store to get something to eat. The truth is I wish I had something to do on a Saturday night, but nine times out of ten it would not be worth me leaving the house. There is a club for teens nearby, but that would be a waste of my time. I find no pleasure or pride in dancing with (or on) a boy who is immature and will brag abut how loose the girl he just danced with was. I’m back to the conclusion that I don’t need it. I’ll be a lion focused on its prey, and my prey is a better future: going to college and being a lawyer and showing the kids in Park Heights that impossible is nothing! —Sashae’ Harris, 14, lives in Baltimore and is a student at Kipp Ujima Village Academy.

My favorite dance

was in the summer of 1977 at the local country club. It was the largest dance my best friend, Patti, and I had ever gone to. Neither of our families belonged to the country club, but we had on occasion jumped its fence for a late-night swim. When we got there, the clubhouse was crammed with kids from nearly every area middle school, and kids who normally didn’t talk to us chatted up a storm. We walked around like redcarpet celebrities drunk on a perfect moment. Boys noticed us for the first time, which, somehow, really mattered. Everyone danced by the pool to a band with a barefoot guitarist, like in some Elvis movie. By the end of the evening, everyone was swooning and cheering for more. That dance, like all Saturday night dances, stretches through time for me, like light traveling the Milky Way. It seems amazing now that a bunch of adults would coordinate a dance with amateur bands for a bunch of middle-schoolers. I guess they thought they were just providing wholesome entertainment, but what they created was an unrivaled pocket of youth.

Before moving back to Maryland, I spent four years of mostly solitary Saturday nights living in the heart of Manhattan, just five blocks from the Chrysler Building. At first, Lydia, my rabbit, lived with me. Late on Saturday nights, I pulled out my dulcimer, sat down on the carpet of the studio room we shared, and played along with the best folk music on WNYC while Lydia hopped about. Soon, Callie, a calico kitten, joined us. After Lydia died on a hot, airless June night, I spent hours of the grief-filled summer reading the novel Shogun, then bought a puppy I named Tsukki (pronounced sue-key), after one of the characters. Shortly, we began what would become our latenight Saturday ritual. After 9 p.m. we’d go in search of the Sunday New York Times. Across the street from the steakhouse, with its mouth-watering smells of grilled beef, several fresh fruit markets arrayed their wares on the sidewalk until midnight: crates upon crates of oranges, lemons, melons, endive, romaine, parsley, and red and green apples. We’d snag the newspaper and return to the apartment. By this time the musical program would have moved on, and often a Philip Glass composition pulsed through my speakers as we stepped back inside. I’d drop to the floor, spread out the newspaper, and, with Callie purring in my lap and Tsukki’s warm body nestled against one thigh, read until midnight or 1 a.m. Callie grew sick and died at the end of November. Tsukki and I moped along until Christmas loomed. Enough of this, I thought, and I grabbed Tsukki’s leash late one Saturday night. We walked to a fruit market at 37th Street and Third Avenue where a fresh scent of pine greeted me. I selected my first-ever Christmas tree, paid for it, and turned to lead Tsukki—and the shop assistant dragging our tree—on a jubilant march back up Third Avenue through a cold white snowstorm. ■ —Hattie C. Wolfe, a Baltimore resident and graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Master of Arts in Writing Program, recently finished writing her memoir, Animal Gifts.

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CORKBOARD CORK Mural Master As part of the 2007 Maryland Institute College of Art lecture series, Jane Golden Heriza, director of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, speaks about that city’s vibrant public arts program.

1301 Mount Royal Avenue Brown Center, Falvey Hall Feb 12, 3:30 p.m. Free 410-225-2300 www.mica.edu

Smooching with the Fishes If you’ve always thought touring the National Aquarium in Baltimore at night with your beloved would be fun, don’t miss this opportunity—on Valentine’s Day, couples can enjoy wine and desserts and go on romantic self-tours of all the Aquarium’s exhibits.

501 East Pratt Street 7–10 p.m. $125 per couple; reservations are required and space is limited 410-727-3474 www.aqua.org

A Lesson Before Making Syrup Learn what goes into making maple syrup at Ladew Topiary Gardens’ Maple Magic event. Attendees will learn to identify types of trees (like sugar maples), collect sap from tapped trees, and taste mini pancakes topped with syrup made from tree sap from the Ladew grounds.

3635 Jarrettsville Pike, Monkton Feb 18, 2–4 p.m. Adults $10, children $5 410-557-9570 www.ladewgardens.com

Live from New York, It’s Progress Theatre New York-based touring theater company Progress Theatre presents two full-length productions at the Baltimore Theatre Project. Peaches, inspired by the Nina Simone song “Four Women,” deconstructs gender and racial stereotypes. ’Membuh: [Confessions of ] The Only Generation, the company’s newest work, follows a group of twentysomethings as they figure out what it means to be young and black in today’s America.

45 West Preston Street Peaches: Feb 15 at 8 p.m., Feb 17 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Feb 18 at 3 p.m. ’Membuh: Feb 16 at 8 p.m. General admission $16, seniors and students $11 410-752-8558 www.theatreproject.org

Getting Crafty The 31st annual American Craft Show in Baltimore—the largest juried craft exhibit in the country—returns to the Baltimore Convention Center. It features works, from home décor to jewelry to children’s clothes and toys, by more than seven hundred of the nation’s top craft artists.

1 West Pratt Street Feb 23–25 Friday 10 a.m.–9 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. $14; two-day pass $20; children under 12 and American Craft Council members free 1-800-836-3470 www.craftcouncil.org/baltimore

Life as We Know It The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presents the East Coast premiere of a collaboration between Baltimore native and composer Philip Glass and renowned wildlife photographer Frans Lanting. Called LIFE: A Journey Through Time, the original multimedia performance tells the story of life on Earth. Lanting’s stunning photographs will be projected above the orchestra as they play Glass’ score.

Performances take place at both The Music Center at Strathmore (North Bethesda, 5301 Tuckerman Lane) and the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (1212 Cathedral Street) For ticket information, go to www.bso atstrathmore.org or www.baltimore symphony.org

Photo credits from top to bottom: courtesy of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program; photo courtesy of George Grall, National Aquarium in Baltimore; courtesy of Ladew Topiary Gardens; photo by Akintoye Mose; courtesy of Steven Main; “Quiver Trees” by Frans Lanting, www.LifeThroughTime.com.

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m m a r c h 0 7

urbanite march 07

have you heard . . .

edited by marianne amoss

Record Store …

photo by La Kaye Mbah

Punk has always been DIY—and Reptilian Records’ new location is filled with that aesthetic, from renovations done by owner Chris X’s friends to the well-worn skateboards studding the store’s perimeter. Inside this new space are the same old rarities that made Reptilian a Fells Point treasure for seventeen years: obscure zines, hard-to-find albums by independent artists, and gently used band T-shirts. The new location is next to the Ottobar on North

Howard Street—perfect for pre-show browsing. While deciding whether to fill the holes in your Earth Crisis or St. Valentine’s Killers collections, you can always page through a copy of The Devil’s Notebook by Anton Szandor LaVey. Open noon–9 p.m. daily. 2545 North Howard Street; 410-327-6853; www.reptilianrecords.com. —Catrina Cusimano

Spa … Gone are the days when you’d have to search for Kiehl’s, Trish McEvoy, or Darphin products— Bluemercury Apothecary and Spa has opened at The Gallery at Harborplace. This luxury chain is national, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. In the apothecary, which opened this past fall, customers will find Bluemercury’s signature wide range of hard-to-find and imported cosmetics and skincare products. The spa, which

opened in November, offers services for men and women like five-phase facials, oxygen treatments, microdermabrasion, face and body waxing, and makeup application. Open 10 a.m.–9 p.m. Mon–Sat, noon–6 p.m. Sun. 200 East Pratt Street; 410-576-9090; www.bluemercury.com. —Marianne Amoss

Interior Design …

courtesy of Design Yourself Interiors, Inc.

During these short days, it’s easy to get cabin fever. One solution is to update your home’s look by rearranging furniture, but moving the same bulky chair five times can be frustrating and tiring. Some new floor-plan kits that can save you this headache have hit the market, like Life Size Furniture Templates from DesignYourself Interiors.com. Once you’ve cleared your room, lay down the life-size paper templates in the room arrangement you desire (see photo at left);

inform

when you find a setup that suits you, simply move the furniture back in. Or, try the Home Quick Planner Peel ’n Stick kit from www. homeplans.com that includes reusable plastic stickers in the shapes of furniture and appliances that can be arranged and re-arranged on a gridded laminated card. They’re great for remodeling, too. —M. A.

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have you heard . . . Boutique …

photo by La Kaye Mbah

The first thing shoppers will see when they walk in the door of new Mount Washington Village boutique Jean Pool is a white and brown Chihuahua named Spike, the official store mascot. The friendly dog is owned by Scott Wable, co-owner of the store with his partner, Josh Dunkin. Jean Pool opened on November 1 to address Wable’s perception of a lack of casual yet hip clothing in Baltimore’s shops. The Garrett County native moved to Baltimore in 1998 and since then has worked in Baltimore fashion standbys like Octavia and Ruth Shaw. High-end jeans for men and women—brands

like Antik Denim, Robin’s Jeans, Freedom of Choice, Mink, 1921, and Siwy—are displayed alongside cowboy boots, retro-style T-shirts, denim skirts, and belts. Alterations are handled right in the store. There is also a philanthropic twist to Jean Pool: Wable and Dunkin host regular fundraising events, the proceeds of which go to such organizations as the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Open 10 a.m.–7 p.m. Mon–Sat. 5616 Newbury Street; 410-466-1177; www.baltimorejeanpool.com. —M. A.

Neighborhood Bar … One of the reasons to love Baltimore is the great neighborhood bars. Add another one to that list: The Laughing Pint. In this cozy Highlandtown pub, there’s no TV, no dance floor, no video poker. Instead, ’80s tunes play casually in the background while the mixed crowd of old-school neighborhood folks and new-school twentysomethings mingle and chat warmly and play fifty-cent games of pool, twenty-five-cent arcade Donkey Kong, and occasionally dominoes. The interior sports shiny red booths and a back bar that owner Shannon Cassidy made with artist Stewart Watson (co-owner of Station

North’s Area 405). Although the pub doesn’t yet serve food, hungry guests are invited to order in from any of the local restaurants or pizza places. Local fave Clipper City is on tap, along with regulars like Yuengling. Be sure to keep an eye out in February for the Clipper Crawl, a pub crawl sponsored by the Laughing Pint and other Highlandtown bars that serve Clipper City beer; go to laughingpint.com for details. Open 3 p.m.–1 a.m. Mon–Fri, 2 p.m.–1 a.m. Sat. 3531 Gough Street; 410-342-6544. —Shannon Dunn

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Coffeehouse … “I treat customers the way I treat guests in my home,” says Carol Ott, owner of Evelyn’s Cafe and Coffeehouse on Washington Boulevard in Pigtown. Named after Ott’s grandmother, Evelyn’s offers standard coffeehouse fare: sandwiches (made with Stone Mill Bakery bread), pastries, coffee, espresso, tea, and Italian soda. The interior is warm—a blend of bright orangeybrown walls and exposed brick. In the future,

Ott hopes to offer seasonal organic produce and local cheeses. Go to www.evelynscafe.com to download a menu and to check out Ott’s blog. She updates it frequently with food specials and neighborhood news. Open 7:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Mon–Fri, 9 a.m.–3 p.m. Sat and Sun. 784 Washington Boulevard; 410-230-0651. —M. A.

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Play with Fire Gather wood, friends, and food for a fire-pit feast

Above: John Gutierrez (at far left) and friends enjoy the warmth of his Woodberry fire pit on a winter evening.

If you are feeling like the shortest month seems the longest, you are not alone. Most of us have had enough of winter and once Valentine’s Day has come and gone we are ready for spring. One way to find pleasure in the remaining dark and chilly nights of winter is to light a fire and ask some friends over to cook the new old-fashioned way: over an open fire. It makes me hungry just talking with Bill Irvin, director of operations for Phillips Seafood Restaurants. Irvin has eaten at some of the best restaurants in the world, but one of his great culinary pleasures is sitting with friends around a fire on a winter’s night having good wine and great conversation. He has a fire pit in his backyard about three feet in diameter and eighteen inches deep, lined in fireproof wall pavers. “First thing is, you open a great Spanish Rioja and wait for the fire to get hot,” Irvin says. “It is riveting.” You don’t need a recipe. Start with four ounces of chicken, fish, or even a couple of short ribs. Place on top of heavy-duty foil cut into twelve-inch squares, cover with extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, and the herbs and spices you like best, and leave about an inch-and-ahalf border. Add some potato wedges, sliced carrots, and

onions, with a bit more oil, if you like. Fold the foil over and crinkle the edges shut. Wrap in a second piece of foil to make sure nothing escapes. Place on the hot coals and keep enjoying the wine and conversation. In about twenty-five to thirty minutes, pull one of the “Beggars Purses” out of the fire and test for doneness. If it isn’t ready, wrap in more foil and cook another five to ten minutes. Ned Sparrow of NedSparrowBooks.com often entertains readers, writers, and book dealers at his historic Lutherville home (an 1890s general store), and he has created a fire pit near the entryway to a sealed 1950s bomb shelter. It provides a lovely setting for “cooking range-fed red meat—venison steaks and tenderloins—over hard wood branches that have been given up by nature,” Sparrow says. “Within an hour, a good bed of small sticks will turn to perfect charcoal.” Sparrow cooks the meat with a dry rub that has lots of fresh rosemary in it and roasts it with an assortment of apples. When the meat is done and the fire is still hot, he will grill whole fresh trout or a

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side of salmon in a matter of minutes. He also roasts corn in the husk, potatoes, and various squashes. If food cooked over an open fire didn’t taste scrumptious, Spike Gjerde wouldn’t use it. This well-known Baltimore chef and restaurateur entertains friends by cooking over a fire pit made from an old stone mill wheel while he supervises the construction of his new venture, Woodberry Kitchen, scheduled to open this spring at 2010 Clipper Park Road. An enthusiast of local produce and the freshest of fish, Gjerde uses his time and talent to bring out the best in food, especially fresh halibut. (See recipe below.) His neighbor John Gutierrez, an architectural designer, occasionally hangs a large cast-iron cauldron from an iron hanging-pot rig over their shared fire pit to make a kettle of goulash, which makes for not only a delicious dish but also a social event. “The reason you make and share the goulash is because the fire, the smoke, the ashes, and the food get mixed up with the great outdoors,” Gutierrez says. “I like to have thirty people, each bringing something for the cooking pot, and while we wait for dinner to cook, we are connected to each other in the moment. To me this is living art.” So how can you create your own “living art” at home? As luck would have it, there are ready-made fire pits you can use in any urban space that permits a barbecue grill. The Tahoe, made by The California Firepit, is a good choice. It is nice and heavy

with a full fire screen to prevent the escape of embers, a deep bed with air vents, and a sturdy hook so that you can cook a delicious stew or chili in a castiron Dutch oven. If you don’t already have one, try the Lodge Camp Dutch Oven; it has a flat lid with a rim around it so that you can put coals on it and prevent heat loss on a cold night. The lid also doubles as a griddle. The Patio Hearth, a fire pit made by Arctic, is another variety that works well and has the advantage of a raised base so you can see the fire all around. The simplest readymade is the Sojoe Fire Pit, which is easily assembled and is basically a three-legged pot with decorative holes cut out of the sides to let air circulate. It comes with a cooking grate, a spark guard, and a poker, so it can be a good starter pit for the novice. Some other accessories you may want are extralong oven mitts, extra-long cooking utensils, a poker with a hook at one end, a large flat stone or metal ledge on which to place hot pots, a bucket for ashes, and a bucket for water. You also need a fire screen so no large embers escape. Before lighting any matches, be sure to check if you are permitted to have a fire where you want it. If you are going to build your own pit, that may require a license and inspection. A lot of people have graduated from barbecues to fire pits for their winter cooking. Know that if you are eating with me this winter, you just may be playing with fire. ■

Fireside Alaskan Halibut on the Plancha Spike Gjerde

For the halibut: 8 thick pieces of halibut filet, about 3 to 4 oz. each* 2 tsp. sea salt 1 small bunch fresh thyme 1 lemon 2 or 3 small fresh green chilies, spicy or not 3 tbsp. olive oil salt and pepper

For the plancha: a clean, heavy piece of steel, at least ¼-inch thick vegetable oil *Smaller pieces of fish are easier to handle on the plancha. Serve two as an entrée. Arrange fish on a plate and carefully sprinkle the sea salt evenly over filets, turning to coat all sides. Refrigerate for up to two hours. Break thyme into two- or three-stem bunches. Slice lemon and chilies more or less thinly.

Dry halibut with paper towels. Toss with olive oil, then add thyme, lemon, and chilies. Marinate for 30 minutes to a few hours, but not much longer. Build a fire with wood. Use a paper towel to wipe plancha with oil. Position plancha over hottest part of fire, close to the flames. Heat for about 10 minutes. Remove fish from oil. A piece or two of thyme or green chili sticking to the fish is not such a bad thing. Lightly salt and grind with black pepper. Place a piece of fish on the plancha. It should sizzle emphatically and smoke a little. If it doesn’t, get the plancha hotter. Cook all the halibut, turning once or twice, for 6 to 8 minutes, moving the fish to a cooler part of the plancha if necessary. Keep the plancha clean and wipe with oil when cool to prevent rust. Note: If you want to make this dish indoors, oil a cast-iron skillet large enough to hold the filets in a single layer. Place the skillet in the middle rack of your oven and pre-heat until the temperature reaches 450 degrees. Proceed as above.

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baltimore observed

by lionel foster

photography by nancy froehlich

The Longest Three Miles Freshman Justin Jones struggles to bridge the gap between his Northeast Baltimore home and the Johns Hopkins University campus

Above: Justin Jones seated in front of Johns Hopkins University’s Milton S. Eisenhower Library

On October 31, 2006, 18-year-old Johns Hopkins University freshman Justin Jones told a television reporter that African-American students on his campus were being patronized. Referring to protests held that week against the Sigma Chi frat party that invited students to dress in “regional clothing” such as “hoochie hoops, bling bling, ice ice, grills” for a “Halloween in the ’Hood” party, Jones worried aloud about the climate on campus. “It’s not that we’re not welcome,” he said of the five percent of Hopkins students that are African-American. But there is a current of thought, Jones said, that black students are at the university under false pretenses. And Jones is sensitive to the accusation. After all, he stands perfectly poised on the divide between the largely white, wealthy university and the disadvantaged Baltimore neighborhoods nearby where Jones himself grew up. Indeed, his very presence on the campus is an effort to bridge that gap. Justin Jones is a Baltimore Scholar, one of

more than sixty city students invited to attend the school for free in the last two years under a new initiative designed to bring local public-school students inside the ivory tower. Potential Baltimore Scholars must live in the city and complete at least tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades within the public school system. They can then apply for admission via the same process as any other applicant. If admitted, their tuition is waived completely—making their award worth approximately $136,000 over the course of four years. In creating the Baltimore Scholars program, Hopkins converges with a trend among highly selective schools to offer full tuition to a greater number of students from families with low to middle incomes. In 2001, Princeton University announced that its financial aid packages would no longer require low- and middle-income parents to take out massive loans for their children. Soon other schools followed suit. In 2004, Harvard University

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announced that parents earning less than $40,000 a year would not be expected to contribute to the cost of their children’s educations. In 2006 they increased the income threshold to $60,000. In 2005, Yale University promised the same for families making less than $45,000. Today, at least eight of U.S. News and World Report’s top twenty colleges and universities eliminated the costs normally passed on to the parents of low-income families. And even as rivals in the top collegiate tier race to make income less of a barrier, state schools across the country are adding residency requirements to many tuition-free offers to keep their most talented locals from leaving home. The idea for such a program at Hopkins came from Director of Undergraduate Admissions John Latting who proposed it in 2002 to the University’s Commission on Undergraduate Education, a group charged with finding ways to improve the Hopkins experience in the classroom and beyond. It became a priority among the thirty-four recommendations put forward by the group in 2003, and the program was swiftly implemented. The first Baltimore Scholars entered Hopkins in fall 2005. Although the Hopkins’ initiative was designed in part to attract an underrepresented AfricanAmerican population and, in fact, more than fifty percent of the Baltimore scholars are AfricanAmerican, it is both race- and income-neutral. The Baltimore Scholars program and a similar initiative at the University of Chicago are unique because they do not limit the offer based on financial need, leaving the tuition remission open to any academically acceptable city public school student. From the beginning, the university wanted to ensure that the Scholars felt like full members of the Hopkins community and not a separate group. There is, for example, no Office of Baltimore Scholars. But the group’s own enthusiasm and activism made them noticeable. “They volunteer for everything,” says Hopkins’ political science professor Matthew A. Crenson, who is faculty director of the program and chair of the program’s steering committee. And the university intends to capitalize on this, using their energy, visibility, and intimate knowledge of the local public school scene to spread the word among the city’s 90,000 public school students, eighty-eight percent of which are African-American. Recruiting for Hopkins is not the only goal. “We hope to get the idea that they’re going to college into their minds very early,” says Crenson. In Jones’ case, college was always the goal. An “A” student since the third grade, he enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program at the esteemed Baltimore City College High School. During his high school years, the debate league member found himself advocating for the rights of his fellow students. In a city where at least four out of ten teen-

agers do not complete their secondary education, Jones was a part of the grassroots student movement to demand for better funding and support of city schools. “Students kept arguing that we should have a strike and I just kept adamantly arguing no,” he says. Instead, Jones suggested that the students buckle down and study. “Let’s show them that we can reach these standards that they claim we can’t,” Jones recalls saying. “Show them that we’re worth saving.” While he excels in academics (and advocacy), his first and most abiding passion has been for comic book art. New York City’s Pratt Institute School of Art and Design was his first choice for college. He was wait-listed there, but went on to receive offers from Bard College in New York, Loyola College in Maryland, and Morehouse College in Georgia. He accepted the offer from Hopkins at the insistence of his mother, Kathy Elliott, who did not want to take out tens of thousands of dollars in personal loans.

I really wanted him to get out of Baltimore. But financially that just wasn’t happening. He was getting more money from schools close by. “I really wanted him to get out of Baltimore,” admits Elliott. “But financially that just wasn’t happening. He was getting more money from schools close by.” “Close by” has always been Northeast Baltimore’s Belair-Edison community. Here, Jones was raised by his single mom—along with plenty of help from his fraternal grandfather, Frank Jones, a retired cabinetmaker. “People in my family think Hopkins is a huge deal,” Jones says. “My grandfather got the bumper sticker. He’ll tell anyone who’ll listen that his grandson goes to Hopkins.” For his part, Jones likes the academic climate but finds the school’s culture noticeably different. Though he grew up only three miles from the Homewood campus, it seems worlds away. “Hopkins is very isolated,” he says. “It’s like a little bit of New England in the middle of Baltimore.” Except, of course, that it is not. And true to his mission as a Baltimore Scholar, Jones feels compelled to remind students and administrators of that from time to time. “Students on this campus are just getting really bold,” says Jones of an experience he had escorting a friend home this fall when a white student walked by him hissing, “Stupid black people!” Jones, who had the comment hurled at him in the aftermath of the Halloween frat party fracas, believes he had an obligation to speak and force Hopkins to confront racism. After that infamous

invitation that described Baltimore as an “HIV pit,” Jones felt compelled to act. When he later found that the party’s ambience included boarding up several windows in the off-campus building, broadcasting audio recordings of gunshots, and hanging a figure from a noose—he was even more certain he’d been right to speak out. On the day of the party, he and a friend printed copies of the invitation and began handing them out to everyone they hoped might have a stake in countering the fraternity’s stereotypes. He also contacted the executive board of Hopkins’ Black Student Union to ask for advice and help in alerting the administration. He called a meeting and approximately two hours later, forty students had gathered to develop a plan of action. Some students went directly to the fraternity party to take pictures with their digital cameras. They showed the photos to administrators, and the party was shut down around 1:45 a.m. on October 29. Since then, there have been two BSU-led protests, two campus meetings sponsored by the administration, a Student Conduct Board hearing, and lots of press. The fraternity has been reprimanded by Hopkins and its own national headquarters. The author of the invitation that was posted on Facebook, a website popular with students, has been suspended from the university until 2008. As Urbanite went to press, Hopkins University President William Brody was weighing a number of initiatives to improve race relations on campus, including suggestions from an ad-hoc group of African-American professors there to “develop courses, workshops, and seminars to increase our students’ exposure to the history and current reality of racism,” Brody says. These days, things have mellowed a bit for Jones. As his first semester wound down he concentrated on class assignments and his intended major, Africana Studies. Jones didn’t know the field even existed before a Hopkins open house, but already has lofty goals: “Cornel West has to die sometime,” he jokes, as he considers stepping into the shoes of the well-known scholar of African-American studies and current Princeton University professor. Jones also cites his favorite book, Sam Greenlee’s The Spook Who Sat by the Door, and the provocative questions it raises. He says similar questions about his own future—and the future of Baltimore—loom large for him these days. “How can I best help the people in my community attain what they need?” he wonders. “If that means giving back to Baltimore on a small scale, I’ll try that. If it means running for office some day, I might try that. If it means starting a revolution—you never know—I might try that.” ■ —Lionel Foster is an alumnus of Johns Hopkins University. This is his first article for Urbanite.

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The Naked Avenger and Friends A love letter to a Baltimore street

There’s a woman who lives on my street named Lisa, but we all call her Naked Avenger. I didn’t witness the event that gave birth to this nickname, but neighborhood legend has it that she chased down some petty vandals in nothing but a bathrobe, and when she tackled one of them in order to detain him for the police, her robe fell off. When Baltimore’s finest arrived, they asked her if she had ever considered joining the force, that they needed good people like her. Naked Avenger is also good for throwing drinks into the open windows of cars that speed down our narrow street too quickly, but she can most often be found walking her three dogs around the block, hollering to the pokey old beagle, “Ah c’mowhn, Helen!” There’s another woman who lives behind me; I still haven’t made her acquaintance, but one evening a long time ago she came banging on my door, demanding to know why my husband was taking pictures of her in her kitchen. Turns out he was playing with his new digital camera on our back deck, she saw the flash, and she became convinced that he was recording her for perverted and nefarious purposes. (Are there any other kind?) Makes you wonder what she does in her kitchen. Weirdest thing about Andy-two-doors-down is that he’s a Republican. He came to John and Barbara’s election night party back in 2004 with a six-pack

of Busch beer, and we laughed and laughed until we realized he was serious and Bush had won the election. Craig and Jacquie live next door to Andy. I once had to bribe Craig with beer to come help me open my flue as smoke filled my house. (I fit in this neighborhood because I start fires without knowing how to work flues, among other reasons.) He was smoking a cigarette, and there’s no question that Craig likes cigarettes much more than he likes me, even when I’m not hysterical, which I was at the time. But Andy really likes Craig, swears that he plays the piano so beautifully it will make you cry. So I try to keep that in mind. Barbara, of John-and-Barbara, lives in one of the houses between mine and Naked Avenger’s, and she desperately adores the fresh-bean stand at the farmer’s market. She also feels very strongly that the male Ravens’ cheerleaders should be clad in a fashion that is similar to the women’s. She cannot fathom a justification for putting those healthy men in baggy warm-up pants. It’s hard to say which is more amusing: listening to Barbara explain her position on the cheerleaders, or watching John as he listens, grinning and shaking his head. Barbara also loves a good stoop-sit; a warm night and a glass of red, and she’s there. It takes almost no effort to start a stoop-sit on Lancaster Street. Just bring out some wine and sit w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m m a r c h 0 7

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urbanite march 07

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down. If you’re more serious, you can set up a small bistro table on the sidewalk and start hollering at people as they come home from work, or you can join the guys on the corner of Bond Street who are always standing around a smoking hibachi next to a sign in the window that says “Free Advice.” (One of the hibachi boys, Alex, works for the Associated Press and keeps a close eye on the local news—it’s good to get him talking because he usually knows something freaky.) One year, after the neighborhood crab feast that happens every September in the alley around the corner, a few of us tried to roll the keg back onto Lancaster Street and parlay the dinner into a stoop-sit, but the grown-ups said no, that we had to go find our own booze. So we did. In the President’s Day blizzard of 2003, when two feet of snow fell on the city, the stoops were covered, along with everything else. Some desperate or courageous man started the futile process of digging out his car. (We knew the city wasn’t coming—in sort of the same way you know your flakey friend isn’t coming.) Slowly the instinct to dig caught on until almost everyone in the neighborhood was out shoveling snow onto large tarps and dragging them into the same alley where we hold the summer crab feast. For continuity’s sake, Beth and I ran around the corner to Broadway Liquors, bought some beer and some vodka for Andy, and sunk it into the

snowdrifts like we were at a picnic in Antarctica. We made the local news that night. No one else shoveled two city blocks. I grew up in Columbia. My best friend lived

It takes almost no effort to start a stoop-sit on Lancaster Street. Just bring out some wine and sit down. If you’re more serious, you can set up a small bistro table on the sidewalk and start hollering at people as they come home from work, or you can join the guys on the corner of Bond Street who are always standing around a smoking hibachi next to a sign in the window that says “Free Advice.” across the street, and our kind, vigilant nextdoor neighbor once spotted smoke and saved my family’s home, putting out a stove fire while it was

still harmless. But I’m not sure how you top sitting outside on Halloween, giving out candy with ten of your neighbors and listening to Katie-from-Kansas talk about how oddly virile and sexy she finds Dick Cheney. We didn’t even care that half of our trickor-treaters were just picking up candy on their way to the bars. In fact it would have been a tremendous loss if the five-foot-eight black woman in the blond wig and short skirt hadn’t shown up, because Jogging Jen (she runs everywhere all the time; I’ve even seen her running with groceries) would have never asked, “Paris Hilton?” and the woman would have never replied, with more than a little indignation, “Mariah Carey.” The two-and-a-half-foot tall Buzz Lightyear who ran our gauntlet at Mach ten was just icing. I heard that when John Waters was asked why he keeps coming back to Baltimore, why he doesn’t settle down in New York or Los Angeles, that he replied, “New Yorkers are weird, and they know it. Baltimoreans are weird, and they have no idea.” I don’t know if he really said that, but I choose to believe that he did. ■ —Heather Harris, Urbanite’s Executive Editor, wrote about the “Marriage Works” campaign in the September 2006 issue. She has lived on Lancaster Street in Fells Point since 2002.

REACHING NEW HEIGHTS 15 sophisticated residences light

air

SAILS

space

Gene Rodriguez 410.814.2447 www.live10wchase.com

located in historic Mt. Vernon developed by: 10W Chase, LLC

Art Gallery of Fells Point 1716 Thames St. • 410.327.1272 fellspointgallery.org

Diliberto Gallery

Fells Fired

1922 Fleet St. • 410.299.6508 dilibertogallery.com

1733 Fleet St. • 410.327.7440 fellsfired.com

Gallery ID8

Robert McClintock Gallery

2007 Fleet St. • 410.276.8190 galleryid8.com

1809 Thames St. • 410.814.2800 robertmcclintock.com

First Fridays every month. Saints & Sinners

Smedly’s

1610 Thames St. • 410.276.1300 saintsandsinnersink.com

Corner of Fleet & Wolfe • 410.563.7545 smedlys.com

Touchet Gallery

Zoe’s Garden

536 S. Ann St. • 410.522.2280 touchetgallery.com

1918 Fleet St. • 410.327.5335 zoesgardengiftshop.com

Join us Friday, February 2nd and Friday, March 2nd, 5 - 9 PM. Visit fellspointartloop.com for more info and the ArtLoop map. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m m a r c h 0 7

s p a c e

b y e l i z a b e t h a . e v i t t s

photography by jeff wolfram

This garden courtyard at the Eastern Village Cohousing development used to be an asphalt parking lot. Beneath the surface is a geothermal heating and cooling system.

urbanite march 07

Urban Oasis How a cohousing development became the most luxurious affordable housing in Silver Spring From a perch on the roof, the view to the west is all trees. Rock Creek Park, a woodsy parcel of federal parkland bordering Washington, D.C., stretches out across the horizon, framing the view of the capital city beyond with a fringe of thick-foliaged trees. Underfoot, the roof itself is a natural wonder, covered in several different kinds of sturdy, leafy sedum. There is a gazebo and a children’s playground. There is a spot where the residents of the condos below can watch movies on a big screen and practice yoga in the warm months. There is talk of starting a garden in one corner. Turn to the left and the right and the views from the top of the Eastern Village Cohousing development are quite different. Like many bustling towns these days, cranes and construction dot the panorama of Silver Spring in a race to create more residential housing. The roofs of neighboring buildings are covered with noisy condensers and thick tar. Beyond, thick veins of commuter traffic clog the streets at rush hour. It makes the Eastern Village development that much more spectacular: Once a 1950s-era office building, this site is now an awardwinning sustainable cohousing development smack in the heart of a hardscaped metropolis. The lyrics to the Talking Heads’ song “(Nothing But) Flowers” come to mind: “Once there were parking lots, now it’s a peaceful oasis …” “This was where the parking lot used to be,” explains resident Kara Strong, reading my mind. Back on the ground level, Strong is describing how the u-shaped building now encapsulates a garden courtyard brimming with native plants and adorned with an elegant sculpture by D.C.-based artist Robert Cole. “All this was asphalt,” she says. Strong, a green-building consultant who advised the design and construction team on appropriate green building practices, lives and works in Eastern Village, which was completed in 2005 and includes fifty-six housing units and eleven commercial live/work spaces. (The occupants of the commercial wing are

not members of the cohousing community association.) Like most cohousing communities, residents here live in modest private units that accommodate their basic living needs and then share various resources. Nearly six thousand square feet of communal space include a large kitchen and dining area, a children’s playroom, a game room, a living room with a fireplace, a fitness room, a laundry room, and a library, among others. This is a stunning transformation considering that this office complex had been abandoned for more than a decade with few prospects for renewal. “There were squatters living here and it was in really rough shape,” Strong says. Then along came developer Don Tucker, president of Bethesda-based Eco Housing Corporation and a self-described “lifer” in the multifamily affordable housing business. His company took ownership of the building in 2003 as part of a package of building acquisitions. “It was an orphan in a larger real estate transaction,” Tucker explains. “This building was one where everyone was scratching their heads.” But Tucker, who has been a proponent of green design throughout his thirty-year career, saw the potential. “I had an architectural dream about it, which is kind of weird,” Tucker says. “My vision was of an urban garden. It was all hard surfaces at the time, but I saw turning the parking lot into a garden and growing plants up the building. I pictured a green roof.” Tucker has also been on the forefront of the cohousing movement and has already had success in developing the Takoma Village Cohousing community on 4th Street NW in Washington, D.C. He decided this orphaned building, located in the heart of the Silver Spring Arts and Entertainment District, would be an ideal candidate for cohousing. In an age of cookie-cutter design, Tucker and his development team are bucking the

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m m a r c h 0 7

g n i l l e S w o N This residence has it all,

• 10’ Ceilings • Hardwood floors • Maple cabinetry • Stainless steel appliances • Garage parking $200’s • Private courtyard with e h t n i g Startin fountain & outdoor fireplace s t c n a l e l m t n • Shops, cafes & restaurants For appoi - 4 4 9 4 4 43 - 5 7 3 • Move in 2007

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a piano bar

225 W. Read St. in Mt. vernon 410.225.0188

new star in our line up! Bill Forrest, a pianist and vocalist, will bring a touch of Gershwin, The Maple Leaf Rag or your own special sing along requests to the baby grand. Live piano, Tuesday thru Saturday 5:30 to close with varying artists. A Mt. Vernon idea for cocktails before dinner or piano and cognac after.

LATTANZI LANDSCAPES r e - e nv i s i o n i n g y o u r o u t d o o r s p a c e

900 W. 36th Street Baltimore, MD 21211 (410) 889-3191 FAX (410) 889-3192

urbanite march 07

professional design consultation • creative direction brickwork • landscape construction stone work • patios • walkways decks • water features • ponds fencing • grading • retaining walls perennial gardens • renovations • installations

w w w.lattanzi l andscapes.com

•

410.529.0037

Top: Green screens affixed to the exterior will eventually cover the building with leafy vines. Bottom: Kara Strong’s personal living space includes amenities like bamboo floors, low-VOC paint, and Energy Star appliances.

housing-market trend. Rather than guess what occupants want, creating standard units, they include occupants in the design conversation. This is a fundamental quality of cohousing and most of these developments across the country are resident-driven, created by an active group of invested individuals. Spurred by his architectural dream, Tucker took out ads in local papers announcing his plans to develop Eastern Village, and the phones started ringing. A core group of about fifteen interested homeowners gathered and became an integral part of the project’s progression. “Part of my deal with the group was that they take care of marketing and outreach and I take care of business,” Tucker explains. He believed that Eastern Village would be a success. He was right. The units sold out quickly, and the core of initial residents jumped in with design ideas. “Your ego can’t be too firmly attached because the group has lots of input,” Tucker says. “There’s a point somewhere in the process where you lose control and it takes off. You have to let go.” “Those folks who joined early really had to have some powerful vision that this beat-up old office building could be homes one day,” says Strong, who purchased her unfinished unit with about five months of construction remaining. Tucker’s initial vision remained the core of the design. The building is environmentally friendly from the top down. First, there’s that green roof, which won an excellence award in 2006 from Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. Then there’s the underground geothermal system that heats and cools the facility. “This is the advantage of geothermal,” Strong explains. “You don’t need all kinds of condensers on top of the roof. In the future, we’re going to put a hot tub where the condenser used to be.” Green screens were added to the front exterior surface of the building and, over the years, native vine will cover the screen, masking the rather dowdy exterior with a burst of verdant foliage. The fifty-six condo spaces, which have varying footprints of 650 to 2,000 square feet but average around 1,000 square feet, include elements like bamboo flooring, lowVOC paints, and Energy Star appliances. The project earned a LEED silver rating for its environmental renovation, becoming the first cohousing development in the country to gain that designation. “Being in this urban location gets you a lot of credits with LEED,” Strong explains, “because the building uses existing infrastructure.” The building also taps into things like the nearby Metro system. “There is no parking provided on site,” Strong says. (There are plenty of bike-rack spaces, though.) Beyond the punch list of sustainable design elements, the very concept of Eastern Village is green. Cohousing is predicated on the notion of shared resources. One resident has started a library where residents share their books. Another, a Montessoritrained teacher, developed the children’s playroom

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m m a r c h 0 7

Move in Now – No Closing Costs.*

Move right into M illrace Condos at Clipper Mill, a tru ly colorful community with unde niable character. Live within the wooded Jo nes Falls Valley, close to everything yo u love and need in the city: eclectic shops & eateries, the light rail & I-83 and of cour se, the park. Plus, yo u’ll have every moder n convenience inside & out, like 9’ ce ilings and designer lig hting, Verizon ﬁber op tics (FIOS), secure parking and Baltimore ’s most remarkable co mmunity pool. Granite , stainless steel & hardwood availab le on select residence s. Talk about immedia te gratiﬁcation. From the upper $200 ’s. Stop by our Sales Center Saturday or Su nday between noon and 4:00 p.m . or call Cindy Conklin or Bob Merbler at 41 0-727-3720 to schedule an appoint ment.

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com

LEED-ing the Way LEED is an abbreviation for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System™. It is a program of the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging sustainable building design and construction. LEED was created to provide consistent benchmarks for what constitutes a green building, from design to construction to operation. Buildings are awarded rating points for how well they execute five requirements: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. Projects are awarded Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum certification, from lowest to highest respectively, depending on the number of credits they achieve. Projects can qualify for LEED certification under the following categories: • New Commercial Construction and Major Renovation • Existing Building Operations and Maintenance • Commercial Interiors • Core and Shell Development • Homes • Neighborhood Development • Multiple Buildings and On-Campus Buildings

The green roof includes a jungle gym that sits on material made from recycled tires.

to stimulate the minds of the younger residents. Another set up a carpentry workshop, while all residents kicked in their home gym equipment to create the workout room. All of which adds up to make Eastern Village a little oasis. And a bit of an anomaly, winning awards for both its luxurious accommodations and its affordability in the expensive D.C.-area housing market. In addition to the condos selling for reasonable prices, that investment in the geothermal system drastically reduces the building’s energy use. “You’re exchanging heat with the earth through a recirculating pump that takes heat to the individual,” Tucker explains. “In the winter we’re pumping heat from the earth, in the summer were pumping heat

back in. The average energy bill is about $30 per month for a two-bedroom condo. “We estimated that the investment in the geothermal system would pay off in eight years,” Tucker says. “With the way gas and oil went up, it will pay off in four years.” As will the overall investment. Eastern Village is proof positive that thoughtful, sustainable, one-of-akind residential developments are not only possible, but are also financially feasible. “The common myth is that green is not affordable; I think we dispelled that,” Tucker says. ■ —Elizabeth A. Evitts is Urbanite’s Editor-in-Chief.

The USGBC is developing LEED for Schools, LEED Retail for New Construction, LEED Retail for Commercial Interiors, and LEED for Healthcare. For information on training workshops and more detailed guidelines, see www.usgbc.org/ LEED. —Marianne Amoss

Untamed

u The Art of Antoine-Louis b A r y e u ~ February 11 – may 6 ~

600 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21201

www.thewalters.org Hours: Wed.–Sun, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., Fri. until 8 p.m. Tiger Hunt, 1834-36, Bronze ~ Untamed: The Art of Antoine-Louis Barye is presented by Ferris, Baker Watts, Inc. and The Milton M. Frank and Thomas B. Sprague Foundation, Inc., with lead support from an anonymous donor. Contributing sponsors are Mary B. Hyman and Sara Finnegan Lycett. Additional support provided by Sebbie and Marinos Svolos, Sotheby’s and Mr. and Mrs. Roger D. Redden.

~ Free Admission! ~

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m m a r c h 0 7

H i s t o ry i n t h e M a k i n g While rehabbing a classic Stone Hill home, a local couple uncovers a piece of Baltimoreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s abolitionist past By

Ka re n

Houp p e r t

P H OTO G RAP H Y

B Y

ANNE

G U M M ER S ON

Robyne Lyles and daughter Maeve sit in the windowsill. Mark Thistel estimates the couple spent six hours sanding each sash; the house has twenty-five windows.

urbanite march 07

courtesy of The Maryland Historical Society

Mark Thistel wants a PhD. After spending the last year deeply immersed in restoring his newly acquired 1804 house in the Stone Hill section of Hampden, Thistel and his wife, Robyne Lyles, have had a crash course in architectural history, a smattering of carpentry, a taste of archeological forensics, and a handson tutorial in negotiating the linguistically dense bailiwicks of engineers, plumbers, and electricians. “This should be a degree program,” he says with a smile, his eyes sweeping across buckets of plasters, stacks of tarps, and the mountains of tools that fill the library of his new home. Then he raises his voice slightly to be heard above the whine of a power drill droning upstairs (the soundtrack to his life these days): “Seriously, I am emerging from this renovation project as a completely different person with a new set of skills. I am now unafraid of taking things apart.” Fortunately, Thistel admits, he had no idea what he was getting into when he and Lyles decided to purchase the dilapidated mill house for $335,000 in September 2005 and undertake a historically authentic restoration that began in January 2006. “Clearly, ignorance is an essential state of being,” he says, “otherwise no one would tackle this kind of renovation.” But this was love. “We had been walking by this house for fifteen years, admiring it,” says Lyles, explaining that the couple lived with their 5-year-old daughter a few blocks away on 33rd Street but found themselves regularly drawn to the charming Stone Hill houses that were built for mill workers in the 1800s. In particular, they were curious about one of the largest houses that was said to have belonged to the mill supervisor. Eventually, Thistel and Lyles approached the owner—“an old-time Hampden-style resident,” as Thistel puts it—about buying the house. “He chased us off his property!” Thistel laughs. “And that was that.” However, a few years later, the owner changed his mind and put the house on the market at $500,000, a price the couple considered too steep for the amount of renovations required. A year passed. The price dropped twice. Finally, Thistel and Lyles put in an offer that was accepted, and they became the proud caretakers of a little bit of Baltimore history. Today, Thistel and Lyles show a visitor through their house as if they are sharing a good detective story. The exact construction date of the home was in question, but they slowly found clues. In the basement, an extraordinarily long beam bears the grooves of an axe, which places the house’s construction in 1804, a time pre-dating any local saw mills. According to Thistel, its length affirms this theory, exceeding the capability of period mills. Placing their faith in the rigid symmetry of this Federalist-style architecture, the couple recently took a mallet to their library wall, hoping to expose a window they suspected was buried there—and found one, right where its partner existed in the opposite room. A lavish six-foot-by-eight-foot fireplace in the dining room—and the exquisite attention to detail throughout the house—told them it was unlikely that the house belonged to a mere “mill supervisor,” as originally believed. “In those days,” Thistel says, “a man could be measured by the size of his fireplace, as it were.” For Thistel and Lyles, restoring the mantelpiece was one of the big-ticket items (approximately $400 for stripping alone) and they are still working to

The life of Elisha Tyson

Baltimorean Elisha Tyson (1749–1824) was a radical abolitionist in the earliest days of the movement. In addition to owning a grist mill in Hampden, this Quaker philanthropist spent many of his days trying to persuade his brethren that slavery was wrong on every level. He took his fight to the courts—and also to the streets. According to a memoir penned by his grandson in 1825, housed in the Quaker archives at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, Tyson was known to take the law into his own hands when he found judicial response too measured: Once, Tyson learned of a slave-trader who had kidnapped free blacks in Baltimore and was transporting them further south to sell. Tyson tried to get a judge to order the villain’s arrest but as it was late in the evening and he had only rumor to support his cause, the authorities declined to act. Tyson, a pacifist Quaker bearing no arms, stormed the slave-trader’s den and demanded that the prisoners be released: “Shoot if thee dare,” said Mr. Tyson, in a voice of thunder, “but thee dare not, coward as thou art, for well does thee know, that the gallows would be thy portion.” Whether it was the voice and countenance of Mr. Tyson, or the terror of the word gallows that affected the miscreant, his arm suddenly fell, and he stood as if struck dumb with amazement. Mr. Tyson taking advantage of the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, snatched the candle from the hand of the kidnapper, entered the dungeon door, which was providentially unlocked, and descended into the vault below [to free the victims]. In addition to his fight to end slavery—which put him at odds with some Baltimoreans, including many of his Quaker contemporaries whose businesses relied on the practice—Tyson contributed to many philanthropic causes, including founding Baltimore’s House of Industry in 1804, a place that provided shelter and job training to the poor; the Baltimore Society to Protect Free Negroes in 1810; and the Baltimore House of Refuge in 1817. The well-made Stone Hill houses that Tyson built for his mill workers in the 1840s are merely one legacy of the man’s lifetime consideration for the less fortunate. —K. H.

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m m a r c h 0 7

What if we persuaded five unexpected pairs to collaborate? An architect and a television screenwriter? A typographer and a fiction author? What if some of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most creative minds were to intersect at the junction of frustration and passion? What if we let them ask the questions, and we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t edit the answers?

Look for the radicaL resuLts in our March issue.

restore it to its original glory. The entire wooden mantelpiece, carefully notched with a geometric frieze, was removed and taken to Baltimore Finishing Works to be dipped and stripped of two-hundred years of paint. Then it had to be carefully reinstalled, hewing to the couple’s self-imposed commitment to period materials. Though the heart pine mantel is rich and lovely in its exposed state, the couple will paint it in compliance with period style. “Stain didn’t exist and untreated wood would have been considered gauche,” says Lyles, explaining that even beyond their personal commitment to historic authenticity, the Maryland Historic Trust tax break they received requires such touches. Similarly, the fieldstone surrounding the mantel, which our modern sensibilities deem charming, will be plastered over in accordance with period tastes. (Likewise, the exterior fieldstone on the first level is being plastered over. In 1804, builders carefully scored the damp plaster with grooves to imitate the “finer” look of limestone.) Between the fireplaces and the twenty-five windows and five closets, this seemingly modest two-bedroom house was actually pretty fancy for its day. “At that time, you were taxed based on the number of windows and closets,” Lyles says, explaining that the attached fieldstone house, now separately owned by a neighbor, was probably a kitchen, laundry, and servants quarters. “We expect it is built by and for the owner,” says Thistel. “Because there are really expensive touches that I can’t see any company investing in for middle management.” This is an exciting prospect for the couple. After all, the owner of the nearby grist mill was Elisha Tyson, renowned by local historians as a forward-thinking Quaker philanthropist and a very early, very radical abolitionist. Aside from cofounding the first abolitionist society in the South here, Tyson was a persistent thorn in the side of his fellow Baltimoreans and even among his Quaker friends, pushing them—many of whom had businesses which benefited from slavery—to take decisive action against this evil. Frequently, he took matters into his own hands. Local historian Lance Humphries, PhD, helped the couple date the house and tie it to Tyson via Equitable Fire Insurance Policy records, which show that Tyson paid his first premium on the building in 1811. “For many years people assumed this house was built in the 1840s like all the other Stone Hill houses,” says Humphries. But, in fact, hard evidence—like those insurance papers—confirms what Humphries suspected from the very first time he saw the house: The house predates its neighbors. “There are architectural clues, like the twelve small panes of glass over twelve small panes—because larger panes of glass were still expensive and uncommon. It wasn’t until several decades later that larger panes of glass became more widely available and builders switched to six panes over six panes. This and distinctive door moldings readily suggest a date much earlier than 1840.” But what clinches things is the insurance papers’ description of Tyson’s “two-story stone dwelling at Laurel Mills on the east side of Jones Falls” as being 45 feet long and 21 feet wide—an exact description of Thistel and Lyles’ home. They speculate that Tyson, whose permanent home is known to be in Jonestown, probably summered here with his family or used the house to stay in for spates of time while he oversaw his mill. Other hints about the house’s various inhabitants and their allegiances are just as … intoxicating. In cupboards and closets and buried behind plaster, Thistel and Lyles have found a host of bottles. “Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup,” reads one. “Dr. Pierce’s Golden Medical Discovery,” reads another. “Brandy, by any other name,” notes Thistel. When Thistel and Lyles, owners of a chauffeur and limo company called Freedom Services, acquired the property and went on to spend roughly $500,000 renovating the $335,000 house, some of their friends

Exquisite details, like this handsomely carved door, hint at the original owner’s wealth.

Moulding on the wall echoes the banister’s graceful form.

A newly installed Brazilian cherry floor in the addition meets the stone wall of the original home. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m m a r c h 0 7

NEW FLOOR PLANS WITH SUN ROOMS, DINING ROOMS, DECKS AND PATIOS JUST RELEASED! Just a quick spin to nightlife.

Find yourself in a stylish, fully renovated condominium, thoughtfully accented with truly surprising contemporary features, such as granite counters, stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors, decorative columns and molding, and bay windows. Nestled in the historic Rodgers Forge community, Rodgers Forge Condominiums is just a quick spin to Rodgers Forge Elementary, eclectic shopping and dining, downtown Baltimore, local parks, and hospitals. One+Den and Two Bedroom Condominiums | Priced From $218,900 | Up to $19,000 Seller Contribution* Models Open Daily 11-6 | Call 410-377-5700 | www.rodgersforgecondo.com

Sales by Builder’s 1st Choice, Seller’s Agent

Directions: From I-695, Baltimore Beltway, take exit 25 to Charles Street. Follow Charles Street south and turn left onto Bellona Avenue (Route 134),to the Sales Center on left.

Developer: Rodgers Forge Apartments Realty Company, a MD LP

Prices deemed accurate at time of printing and are subject to change without notice. *Seller Contribution for a limited time and is subject to purchaser using seller’s Preferred Lender and Title Company.

The modest addition, by architect Walter Schamu, is discreetly tucked behind the grand house.

thought they were crazy. “People have told us we could have one of those brand-new McMansions in Owings Mills for that price!” Thistel says. “But that’s the last thing we wanted.” “Part of the charm of this place is that basically no one has touched it for years,” he says, “And that’s a good thing.” The couple lost one wooden mantel piece in the library to a faux brick monstrosity that was added in the 1950s and had to replace two window sashes with replicas, but that’s it. “We’re just very grateful to the previous owners for not doing so many of the hideous things that people did during the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s to ruin their historical homes,” says Thistel. With that in mind, the couple chose an architect for their addition very carefully. Local architect Walter Schamu built an addition that fit the existing footprint of the wing the couple tore down in the back of the house. “It’s tempting as an architect to build a come-look-at-me piece of work,” Thistel says. “But Walter created an elegant, understated addition that works well with the home.” “Sometimes it helps new structures to be integrated with the old to see an expression of the building in the interior,” says Schamu, explaining why he went with exposed timber framing in the addition. Here, white oak beams, locked into place via mortise-and-tenon construction, grace the cathedral ceiling. The entire eight-hundred-foot wing is nestled inconspicuously between the back of the house and a steeply graded hill in the yard. The addition accommodates those things necessarily modernized: a kitchen, a bathroom, a laundry room, and a TV/family room. Forty-year-old Thistel points out with pride that the ground-floor library can easily be converted to a bedroom one day when he and his 38-year-old wife grow old and the stairs become too much for them. After putting in an estimated three thousand hours scraping paint, peeling wallpaper, and chipping plaster, he is planning ahead: “There is too much of us in this house now to ever want to leave it.” ■ Urbanite will continue to follow this family through their rehab as they tackle interior ﬁnishing work, structural and cosmetic repair of the porch, and landscaping. Look for updates both in the magazine and online at www. urbanitebaltimore.com.

Faith in Federalist symmetry helped reveal this hidden window’s location.

The 800-square-foot addition—housing a den, kitchen, and laundry room—is a nod to modern life.

Mortise-and-tenon construction gird the wing with history. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m m a r c h 0 7

THE NEXT

urbanite march 07

BIG THING BY

A L I C E

OC KL ES H AW

The woman credited with reinventing wallpaper considers the future of interior design

photo of Marybeth Shaw by Mitro Hood

Baltimore’s latest celebrity might not be a household name, but in the right circles, Marybeth Shaw is a legend. The 43-year-old architectural designer and co-owner of Shaw-Jelveh Design is credited with being the driving force behind the renaissance of wallpaper, a material long considered dowdy and outdated. As creative director of Wolf-Gordon wallcoverings in New York City from 1997 to 2003, Shaw reinvented the company with innovative product design, gained national media and industry attention, and transformed a much-neglected product into hip and sought-after décor, in part by working with big-name designers like Karim Rashid and Petra Blaisse. “Marybeth has been a key player in the recent upsurge in innovative wallpaper design,” says Ellen Lupton, curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. These days, Shaw is dedicating her awardwinning design skills to the three-year-old Baltimore-based company she owns with her husband, Majid Jelveh, an architect. The full-service design firm, which also employs two graphic designers, occupies a bright and modern rowhouse that the couple renovated on the 2400 block of Maryland Avenue. Offering a range of disciplines from architecture and interior design to branding and color consultation, Shaw-Jelveh Design manages a broad spectrum of clients from around the country. In addition, Shaw continues to do what first made her famous: create innovative products for interiors. Her company has developed architectural mesh products for Banker Wire, a premier manufacturer of woven wire fabrics in Wisconsin, and has developed what could be the next big interior design trend: patterned resin panels for use as light-filtering partitions or as an alternative to opaque interior walls. Urbanite caught up with Shaw after hours to discuss her company’s big aspirations.

One of Shaw-Jelveh’s biggest projects to date was designing the Veritas line of resin panels, which feature botanical materials, industrial materials, paper and films, fabrics, and geometric patterns, and a vast range of colors. Since it launched in April 2006, the line has already garnered awards and has sold ver y well. Why do you think it has been so successful?

As opposed to standard, opaque materials, resins let natural light through, helping building projects to earn valuable LEED points. They are also beautiful and dramatic when backlit with

artificial lighting sources. Another reason is the idea of mass customization, which we built into the design of the collection—the idea of the kit of parts that interior designers can create custom compositions from. For almost any kind of interior, you can find the right resin panel for it in this line. When Schneller Inc., a leading manufacturer of laminates for aviation, came to us a couple of years ago, they wanted to compete in the commercial market. It was important from the start to make sure that interior designers would be excited about making this product their own. Resin panels are ver y popular in retail and hospitality environments. Will we be seeing these same materials being used more in our homes and our offices?

They are currently much more prevalent in commercial than residential, but it’s just a matter of time. For residential, it would probably be a more conservative use and an alternative to a solid wall. Maybe in an open space where there’s a kitchen and a family room for a more subtle division. In offices, we often see these products used in open floor plans like those you often find in the old industrial buildings in Baltimore. There have been so many old warehouse buildings that have been redeveloped, and it’s a perfect application. You can really decide how much transparency you want. In the Veritas project, you brought in local artist and Mar yland Institute College of Art professor Piper Shepard to create three historically influenced patterns. While at Wolf-Gordon, you hired architects to design wallpaper. What is the benefit of bringing in designers from outside their disciplines to look at materials that are new to them?

Wallcovering design was stale. It was a material that was waiting to be refreshed by new eyes. It’s really important to inject energy into product development by having someone do it who has never done it before. If we are good design thinkers, then we should be able to apply our thinking to any kind of product. Will we continue to see seemingly outdated products like wallpaper being reinvented, or will the next innovations be completely new?

I think innovation moves from one material to another. A lot of innovation that’s going on now— and has been going on for the past three or four years—is trying to lessen environmental impact.

Product manufacturers and paint companies are putting new, greener products with safer formulations out on the market. There’s been a lot of progress in the area of environmentally conscious products for commercial and residential interior design. As far as design goes, certain designs today might look like they came from the sixties, but if you look more closely, there are differences. You often provide color consulting ser vices to homeowners and, most recently, to the Baltimore City Health Department. What trends are you seeing in the way we use color?

Natural greens are really hot right now, and at least in the near term, they are going to remain that way. Also continuing to play a really strong role in interiors are blues. This reflects a heightened awareness about the air and the sky and the botanical environment around us and the idea of wanting to place some kind of a buffer between technology and ourselves. I think as time goes on, though, we are not going to have to rely on those colors to have a sane, environmentally responsible interior because hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, healthy materials will just be a given. After your success at Wolf-Gordon in New York, what made you move to Baltimore?

We moved down here six weeks after my son was born to be near family. We were really ready for a change. We also felt that Baltimore should have a lot of opportunity, and we’d have a lot to work on down here. I had always wanted to have a fullservice design company. It takes time, but I think it’s the right place for us to be. I still go to New York every two weeks because I have clients up there. Where would you like Shaw-Jelveh Design to go from here?

I think that the graphic design and the product development are kind of humming along and I’m really happy with those components. We’d like to expand the architecture and urban-design side. So far we have just done renovations, and we’d love to work with clients on something from scratch, like a school or a public space. If we could build a public health clinic from the ground up or some kind of civic building, that would really be gratifying. ■ —Alice Ockleshaw is a regular contributor to Urbanite.

Center: Marybeth Shaw in her Maryland Avenue studio. Clockwise from top left: Shaw-Jelveh Design’s line of resin panels includes Arbor, Radio, Cork, and Harvest. w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m m a r c h 0 7

urbanite march 07

Stop!

It’s Hammer Time! Instead of buying things, more and more people are making them. Have no fear—you can touch this. By

M a ri a n n e

Illu stration

n a cold, crisp Saturday in December, the hall of the First Unitarian Church in Mount Vernon was filled with people. Tables lined the walls, and more than twenty vendors sold their wares. Everything was handmade—T-shirts, scarves and gloves, greeting cards, jewelry, handbags, even stuffed monsters—and everyone was in good spirits. This was the first Holiday Art Mart held by local T-shirt company Squidfire. “Every city has a signature craft event,” says Jean-Baptiste Regnard, who co-owns Squidfire with designer Kevin Sherry. “There’s Crafty Bastards in Washington, D.C., Bust magazine’s Holiday Craftacular in Brooklyn, New York, and the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago and Brooklyn. We thought, why didn’t Baltimore have one of these things?” Regnard isn’t alone in his interest in crafting (which can be distinguished from DIY, a similar movement, by the fact that “craft” is always handmade; DIY projects can be anything from publishing books to writing website code). Nationally, groups like the Church of Craft have formed in major cities to give crafters, who usually work solo, a chance to share ideas, advice, and camaraderie. Locally, small groups are gathering in shops and homes across the city to make things with their hands. Craft kits, magazines, and books are popping up in local boutiques, and websites dedicated to the subject are all over the Internet. Crafting has become hip again. The current interest in craft seems to be similar to the Arts and Crafts movement at the turn of the twentieth century. As a reaction to increased dependence on machinery, caused by the Industrial Revolution, some people began to wish for a return to the handmade. Most members of the Arts and Crafts movement believed that machinery could be useful if applied conscientiously, to complement handwork. But to replace completely the human hand, they thought, took all the joy out of the act of making something. For them, the creative process was paramount. Like the Arts and Craft-ers, we have also lived through the beginning of a new century and are now relying on technology to make everyday tasks easier. We also have the sneaking suspicion that many of these gadgets and devices seem to take a lot of the humanity out of our daily lives. One major difference between modern times and the turn of the twentieth century is that not all of our technology is of the soul-sucking variety. Some of it proves quite useful. Ellen Lupton, founding director of the master of fine arts graphic design program at Maryland Institute College of Art and curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in

Am o s s

Dea n n a

Sta ffo

New York City, believes that the recent interest in crafts has come about because the Internet has democratized the creative process. “In this moment in history, people feel very empowered and equipped to make and do things on their own,” Lupton says. “Knowledge is more available than ever before.” Even in the graphic design field, which is by nature based in computer technology, Lupton sees an interest in the handmade. “Students are wellequipped technologically, but they are fascinated with sewing, carving, printing by hand, and making rubber stamps,” she says. “So much about what is happening in the design world is about combining the digital with the physical. It’s about infusing the digital language with something human and something made.” More traditional crafts are also becoming popular. In Baltimore, knitting classes and groups, like Atomic Knit Night, are popular. Atomic Books and Atomic Pop co-owner Rachel Whang started the weekly knitting group about four years ago by advertising in her husband’s blog (www.mobtown shank.com). She has carried crafting kits, books, and magazines for years. “I started slipping in the knitting books when Stitch ’n Bitch came out [in 2003], and the response was great. It’s just grown from there,” she says. Now, Atomic Pop has devoted a section of its store to craft kits, books, and supplies, and the Knit Night is still going strong, with numbers of knitters ranging from eight to twenty-five. If you’d rather buy than make something handmade, you can find plenty of purveyors of the handmade online on websites like Etsy.com. Realizing that eBay was not the best place for crafters to sell their creations, Rob Kalin and three colleagues launched Etsy in 2005 as a marketplace strictly for one-of-a-kind, handmade items. Kalin, a woodworker, has always been interested in craft. Things made by hand, he says, show the human touch, and that’s hard to ignore. When he moved out of his Brooklyn apartment, Kalin says, “I got rid of ninetyfive percent of what I own. I made piles of stuff to donate, to sell, to give away, and to keep. If anything was mass-produced, it was easy to put it in the give-it-away pile. Things that are handmade have a whole other layer of meaning on them—there’s a story behind them. That was the stuff I couldn’t give away.” Kalin’s not alone. Now, about two years after the launch of Etsy, shoppers are purchasing several thousand products per day (at the beginning, the site sold about ten items per day); more than 307,000

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items have sold through the site so far. Crafters are also snapping up publications devoted to the culture. One of these, Make magazine, was launched in 2004 by Dale Dougherty and California-based O’Reilly Media. Dougherty has worked in book and magazine publishing for twenty years. The quarterly magazine encourages people to explore technology and tweak it to fit their needs, by profiling interesting people and things and offering step-by-step instructions for projects. The first issue of Make—45,000 copies—sold out, leading to two additional press runs to produce another 30,000 copies. Now, two years after its launch, Make has a paid circulation of 85,000, and the first issue of its sister publication, Craft, has just been released to cater to those more interested in crafting than, say, building a camcorder rocket (which can be found in volume 7 of Make). Craft’s inaugural release of 30,000 copies is almost gone, according to Dougherty. These publications, kits, and websites that espouse the crafting lifestyle don’t just provide blueprints for certain projects—they encourage

people to create their own usable items. ReadyMade, another popular magazine with a crafting bent, published a book of projects called How to Make (Almost) Everything: A Do-It-Yourself Primer in late 2005. The introduction reads, “Think of each project as a pit stop in the creative process, not a final destination. We fully expect you to get behind the wheel, floor it, and go places we never knew existed.” One caveat: Going to these places sure is fun and rewarding, but it’s not cheap. One other thing our current culture has in common with the milieu of the Arts and Crafts movement is that in both cases, a middle class with disposable income and spare time existed. Crafting is currently a more-than $30 billion industry, according to the Craft and Hobby Association, and crafters spend about $26.30 per project. “Crafting is a big industry, and sewing your own clothes isn’t necessarily cheaper than buying stuff that was made in a sweatshop,” says Lupton. “But it’s more satisfying, and it’s yours.” ■ —Marianne Amoss is Urbanite’s Editor.

Flex your creative mus c les wi th this craf t projec t. WATER-BOT TLE CH ANDELIER from How to Make (Almost) Everything: A Do-It-Yourself Primer

TOOLS Bottle-cutter kit (runs about $50 at a craft or hobby shop) Wire cutter Wire stripper Glass plate (you will use this to sand down your cut glass) Candle Matches Ice cubes Kitchen towel

✂

1. Remove caps, rinse out the bottles, and let them air-dry. 2. Set up the bottle cutter and determine how long you want your pendant to be. Make sure you have a solid end guide for the bottle when you rotate it on the cutter so your etch line will connect. We used a small, heavy box. 3. Using both hands, rotate a bottle in one continuous motion, applying even pressure throughout the rotation for best result. 4. Light the candle. Remove the bottle from the cutter and hold the etch line above the lit candle to heat the cut. 5. Slowly rotate the etch line above the flame in a continuous motion to apply even heat. If it gets too hot, you will hear the bottle crack. If you don’t heat it up enough, the glass won’t break off as described in the next two steps. This is a trial-and-error part of the process that depends on the thickness of your glass. 6. Remove the bottle from the candle heat and apply

photo by Jason Okutake

9 glass bottles 9 pre-wired light receptacles 9 lightbulbs Electrical tape 2 power strips Large ceiling eye hook (to mount overhead) Plastic tie

This variation on the water-bottle chandelier project was created by Baltimore artisan Steve Baker of WhollyTerra. It now hangs in the shared Baltimore office of Palolodeep Design, Zink Design, and Gilah Press + Design.

an ice cube directly along the circumference of the etch line, letting it drip over the towel. 7. The end of your bottle should break off by itself from the change in temperature. If not, using the towel, hold the end that needs to break off and gently twist. It should come off easily. (If it doesn’t, dry off the bottle and repeat steps 5 through 7.) 8. Wipe the end of the cut bottle and set aside. 9. Repeat steps 3 through 8 for each of your bottles. 10. Set your small glass plate on a level surface and sprinkle about a teaspoon of the carbide polishing powder that came with your kit and 1/4 teaspoon of water onto the glass plate. 11. Set the cut side of one of the bottles down on the glass plate. 12. Rotate the cut side to the flat of the glass in a figure-8 motion. The polishing powder and the water, combined with the rotating grind, sands the cut glass into a smoother edge. This process is very loud and will take about three to five minutes per bottle.

13. Wipe the bottle edge clean and set aside. 14. Repeat steps 11 through 13 for all the bottles. 15. Because the plug end of the light socket will not fit through the mouth of the bottle, you will have to cut the wire (preferrably closer to the plug end). 16. Feed the cut end attached to the socket through the bottom of the glass pendant and up through the bottle’s mouth. 17. Next, strip both cut ends of the wire, reattach, and wrap with electrical tape for a secure, safe connection. 18. Plug it in to see if it works. 19. Repeat steps 15 through 18 for the rest of the bottles. 20. Once you have all the sockets threaded through the bottles, arrange, and use a twist tie to hold the electrical cords together. 21. Secure to your ceiling hook, plug in the chandelier, and enjoy a glass of high-class water.

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urbanite march 07

sustainable city

by amy cynkar

photography by la kaye mbah

The State of Sprawl In the second of a twopart series on regional development, Urbanite talks with local economist Anirban Basu about the predicted population growth in Maryland

As discussed in last month’s interview with author Anthony Flint, Maryland has long served as a national model for smart growth initiatives designed to help curb urban sprawl. Locally, however, this ranking has been the source of debate. And with more than 50,000 new military and civilian jobs on their way to the state as a result of the federally mandated Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program, and countless new residents expected to move to the area as a result of new jobs in the Washington metropolitan area, Maryland faces its biggest development test yet—efficiently accommodating this new population without destroying more farmland and preserved open space. Local economist Anirban Basu is one of the mid-Atlantic region’s most notable economists, having been particularly dynamic in recent years in the area of real estate economics, the economics of education, and local economic development and forecasting. Basu, who serves as chairman and CEO of Sage Policy Group, a Baltimore-based economic consulting firm, is also an active member of the Baltimore City Public School System school board and the host of Morning Economic Forecast, a weekday radio show on WYPR, Baltimore’s National Public Radio station. Basu spoke to Urbanite about the economic challenges that have driven low-density development to take over much of the state, and about a number of strategies for driving more sustainable development.

Q. How does Maryland rate in the nation’s battle over sprawl?

A. People identify Maryland as being a

leader in curbing sprawl, in taking steps to actively manage growth. But if you look at the landscape, Maryland probably suffers more sprawl than most states. This is mainly because the state is sandwiched between two major metropolitan areas. In fact, one could argue that there are at least three major metropolitan

areas that influence development in Maryland— Baltimore, Washington, and Philadelphia. These areas have become extraordinarily expensive places to buy a home. Therefore, people are chasing affordability in formerly rural areas where land prices are lower and developers can offer homes at more affordable prices. This is why Maryland is seeing the fastest recent population growth not in densely populated counties like Montgomery, Prince George’s, Baltimore, and Baltimore City, but in formerly rural counties like Calvert, Charles, Cecil, and Washington.

Q. While in office, former governor Parris Glendening worked to curtail sprawl through a series of smart growth policies. What did and did not work during his administration? A. I think many people appreciate Glendening’s

attempt to utilize state resources to manage growth. And it certainly makes sense to have local communities define the priority funding areas where they want to grow and where they want to preserve open space. However, the attempts at smart growth under Glendening never translated into positive local development outcomes. The decisions made at the local level continue to induce sprawl, and, for the most part, development patterns that were in existence prior to the Glendening administration continued beyond that administration. As a result, we continue to chew up farmland, fragment agricultural land, and see populations move farther and farther away from urban cores, leaving communities within the urban core much less prosperous.

Q. What should Maryland be doing to help curb sprawl? A. We’re going to have to completely change the de-

velopment paradigm in Maryland. Where economic opportunity meets land, you will get development, so the only thing that you can do is shape the development that takes place. Most recently, development in Maryland has reflected the state’s high level of affluence, and we have seen the development of large-lot, single-family homes prosper. This is the way to eat up a lot of land without accommodating much population. One hundred homes could be built on three hundred acres, or one hundred homes could be built on thirty acres. The community has been opting to have one hundred homes on three hundred acres, so we’re running out of open space. We must accommodate much higher density than we have in the past, particularly in older communities.

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We also need to promote the market of farms as farms. Many farmers in Maryland are just a few years from retirement, and they will soon have to decide to whom they will sell their land. Typically, the highest bidder will be a private-sector developer. Many young people today have no regard for the opportunities that farming offers for entrepreneurship, innovation, and prosperity. We need to educate the young in order to create the next generation of farmers and make the investment in the rural community to strengthen the ability of farms to prosper. How can urban communities keep agriculture viable in Maryland? What crops should we be growing to enhance profitability? Should we be investing in the wine industry? I don’t think these questions have been asked, and they certainly have not been answered. If we really care about our rural heritage and about preserving open space in communities like Calvert, Cecil, and Alleghany counties, we need to answer those questions. Finally, we need better coordination between counties, but many politicians do not want to talk about regionalism because it is associated with subsidizing the city. This is not a big hit among suburban voters. We need to work together to create common solutions so that everyone ends up playing the role that they ought and want to in the regional economy. Baltimore City wants to be a bigger city. Baltimore City wants to have a more vibrant tax base. And Baltimore City wants to accommodate the middle class. Folks in Harford, Anne Arundel, Howard, and Carroll counties are more ambivalent about accommodating new population. If people in these suburbs want less growth and people in the city want more growth, it makes sense as a region

to work together to create those kinds of outcomes, but we don’t.

Q. If Maryland implements these strategies, won’t housing costs go up? A. If anything, these strategies will help to reduce

prices or at least provide more housing at affordable price points. After all, with density come more total units, and with more supply come lower prices.

Hopefully, at least a seventh of those 1.4 million new residents will live in Baltimore City, allowing the city’s population to re-emerge around 850,000, which it can comfortably accommodate.

Q. With nearly 1.4 million new residents expected in Maryland over the next twenty-five years, where do you anticipate this new population will settle?

A. Hopefully, at least a seventh of those 1.4 million new residents will live in Baltimore City, allowing the city’s population to re-emerge around 850,000, which it can comfortably accommodate. Where will the other 1.2 million go? That is unclear. One would hope that they will live in Baltimore County inside the Beltway, along the Route 1 corridor, or in Columbia, Annapolis, Odenton, Linthicum, Bowie,

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Rockville or Gaithersburg, in already developed communities. And that they will not live in tiny Cecilton, with a population of about one thousand today, or in Thurmont, in northern Frederick County. But given past patterns of development, it’s more likely they’ll end up living in Thurmont or Cecilton than in Baltimore City.

Q. Anthony Flint, author of the book This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America, suggests that consumer demand for urban living is on the rise. Do you agree? A. The city has improved dramatically in the last

six or seven years. We certainly have seen the price of homes skyrocket in the city because of greater demand from younger demographic groups and empty nesters. However, we’ve also seen a housing boom throughout suburban communities and a considerable amount of new development as far north as Pennsylvania, which tells me that many people are still choosing not to live in the city. In fact, they’d rather have an hour-plus commute one way than live in the city. I would like to be optimistic, but I do not see that we’re making the progress we need to make, given the scarcity of land. It wouldn’t take much for Maryland to become one gigantic suburb, from western Garrett County all the way to Ocean City. We don’t want to do that. We want Maryland to remain “America in miniature” with its suburbs, urban areas, rural areas, and all manner of development and communities. ■

—Amy Cynkar wrote about sprawl in the January issue.

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A Tale of Three Cities Urban governments get hip to how design can make for affordable housing

Above: The colorful, energy-efficient Wentworth Commons project in Chicago houses the previously homeless or those in danger of becoming homeless. The project is being considered for a LEED silver rating.

Alleviating the shortage of affordable housing is cited as an urgent priority in urban areas across the developed world. However, financing, building, and maintaining low-cost homes is proving more difficult than ever. Public investment or subsidy is essential but often insufficient, and this is compounded by the fact that the term “affordable housing” is capable of wide-ranging interpretation, with potential residents ranging from young professionals and key public-services staff (nurses, firefighters, and public transport operatives) to students, unskilled workers, the retired, and the recently homeless. In spite of these obstacles, some cities are figuring out that smart incentives and an investment in creative design can go a long way. In Gårdsten, Sweden, public residences built in the 1970s had become last-resort housing and were occupied mostly by recent migrants. The area had a thirty-five percent vacancy rate. In 1998, public housing provider Gårdstenbostäder began renovat-

ing the apartments. Ten of these buildings were designated as “Solarhusen,” or solar buildings. They were designed by architect Christer Nordström, the principal of the eponymous consulting firm that specializes in “solar- and energy-conscious design … and the integration of innovative technologies in buildings.” The 255 units include energy-saving mechanisms like solar air heating and prefab solar-collector roof modules used for heating water. Composting and recycling facilities and communal greenhouses are available for residents’ use. Residents were consulted during the planning stages of the project and are involved in its management. Now, these ten buildings are boasting one-hundredpercent occupancy. Gårdstenbostäder was able to partly finance the project through projections of full occupancy and higher rents. These higher rents are offset by the fact that residents typically experience forty percent lower utility bills because of the solar and insulation

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features. Gårdstenbostäder also benefited from participation in European Union energy innovation programs that brought in around five percent of the capital cost. For their efforts, Gårdstenbostäder and Nordström received several awards, including the 2005 World Habitat Award, an award sponsored by the Building and Social Housing Foundation and the United Nations that is given annually to one housing project in the Northern Hemisphere and one in the Southern. The Gårdsten project was the firstever win for Sweden.

photo by Christer Hallgren

Wentworth Commons On a formerly polluted site (previously the home of a dry-cleaning plant) in the Roseland area of Chicago’s South Side is Wentworth Commons. The site was remediated and given for free to the not-for-profit developer Mercy Housing Lakefront by the City of Chicago. The fifty-one-unit building contains twenty-four single-room apartments and twenty-seven one- to four-bedroom apartments, as well as community space on the ground floor (meeting rooms, a family resource center, a communal kitchen) and lounges and laundry rooms on each floor. Most of the residents were previously homeless or in danger of becoming homeless. Susan F. King, associate architect of Chicagobased Harley Ellis Devereaux, says the firm chose not to hide the photovoltaic panels on the roof; instead, they integrated them into the design of the

exterior. This solar system provides twenty-five percent of the building’s power needs. A reflective roof also helps to reduce the cooling load in the summer. An integrated building envelope and high-efficiency mechanical equipment, including a heat-recovery system, combine to make the building twenty-eight percent more efficient than the Chicago Energy Conservation Code requires. Nontoxic building materials were used to improve the indoor air quality. Due to these green technologies, Wentworth Commons is under consideration for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver rating. (For more information on LEED, see the sidebar on page 47.) “In the end we submitted more LEED points than we had aimed for,” says King. The original goal was twenty-six points, but thirty-three points were submitted. The Urban Land Institute in Chicago, the Metropolitan Planning Council, and the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago jointly awarded the project the 2006 Community Vision Award. The

photo by Christer Hallgren

“I believe design should look to the future,” says King.

Top: Swedish public housing provider Gårdstenbostäder transformed 1970s public housing into buildings that rely on solar power for much of thier energy needs. Bottom: Composting and recycling facilities and greenhouses are available for communal use.

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rendering courtesy of Urban Splash

Chimney Pot Park In Salford, a city in Greater Manchester, England, private developer Urban Splash has partnered with the national regeneration agency English Partnerships and the City of Salford on an innovative project. Their project, called Chimney Pot Park, involves the conversion of two-story rowhouses into “upside down” homes. “We spent money evolving ideas about what could be done with the traditional terraced house to make it modern and attractive,” says Nathan Cornish, director of development for Urban Splash West Midlands. “Our architects, ShedKM, came up with extending the upper floor with a balcony and using it as open living space with the bedrooms and bathroom at ground level.” The homes are very much at the upper end of affordable housing. Prices begin around $200,000. Although this is a fairly high price for first-time buyers, it is worth noting that the Chimney Pot Park houses are located only two miles from the center of Manchester, where prices per square foot are at least double these. And up to ninety-one houses are included in an innovative first-time buyer initiative run by English Partnerships. Purchasers can get a loan of up to fifty percent of the purchase price; the loan is interest-free for three years. This initiative enables young people who can expect a promotion in the near future to get a start on the home ownership ladder. The first 108 homes made available in the spring of 2006 sold out in just over two hours. A number of houses were available for sale to the local community in advance of the public sales launch. Twelve houses were purchased by local residents. The first homes will be ready for occupation in March and the whole project (349 houses total) should be complete in 2009. Clearly, imagination and innovation can result in projects that benefit communities and the environment. Several cities are proving that being open to truly inventive design that draws on public opinion, financial incentives, and green technologies really can work. ■

Top: In the Chimney Pot Park project in Salford, Engand, developers converted two-story rowhouses into “upside down” homes, putting bedrooms and bathrooms on the first level and open living space on the second. Bottom: A “before” photo of the Chimney Pot Park area.

photo by Urban Splash

American Institute of Architects bestowed a 2006 “Show You’re Green” Award, which recognizes examples of excellence in green and affordable housing. “I believe design should look to the future and Wentworth Commons points to a brighter one for all housing types,” says King. In the United Kingdom, some of the stressed areas that have lost population contain a preponderance of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century terraced (row) housing. Although the exteriors of these houses are often highly valued, they are no longer internally large enough to attract even those who live alone.

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Tim Kearley has taken notice of the juxtaposition between the ubiquitous “Believe” banners, as well as municipal benches that proclaim Baltimore as “the greatest city in America,” and the area’s stubborn challenges, not least its high murder rate. “Baltimore, like the rest of the U.S. these days,” Kearley says, “is loaded with slogans about the need for faith even when there are so many visible reasons to have none. All are desperate, last-ditch calls for hope.” As the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of the local, unsigned band Errant Strike, Kearley and his bandmates explore hope in the face of adversity on their noteworthy new recording, Bullhorning from Behind the Imperial Bird, which was released in November. On Bullhorn, Errant Strike counterbalances generally downtrodden, fractured lyrics with buoyant melodies and eclectic arrangements. Such a contrast is an age-old device, but the band, unlike most upstarts, isn’t slavishly derivative. Amidst the Sonic Youth, Flaming Lips, Violent Femmes, and Velvet

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Underground flourishes, Errant Strike nevertheless speaks in a unique voice. The album’s highlights include “Caviar is Caviar, Helium or Not,” “We Will Remain Raw,” and “Deaf Bed”—pop gems that many major label acts would gladly claim as their own. Bullhorn, however, is neither a sterling nor consistent album. The lyrics are too often obtuse and the band’s swing-for-the-fences creative ambitions don’t always clear the bases. “A Song For Allistair Pulley,” which recounts City Paper’s description of a local murder, comes off as a gimmick. Despite Bullhorn’s periodic missteps, Errant Strike is a band worth hearing. And watching. They are, in a word, unconventional. Bullhorn is not unlike a David Lynch film: delineated creative concepts that, just as they begin to appear coherent, take a dramatic turn for the unexpected. A tried-and-true approach to securing a record contract this is not. And what is Errant Strike’s ultimate assessment of Baltimore? They don’t offer one. Instead, Bullhorn chronicles the tensions, conflicts, and hopes of a city in transition. As for Kearley, he sees the glass as half full. “‘I believe’ is still the better option, even if it may at times be laced with delusion.”

NONFICTION By Susan Muaddi Darraj

cating their values, which Americans largely consider more important in elections than facts. Anthony Everitt’s new biography of Augustus Caesar, entitled Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor, perhaps exemplifies some of Lakoff ’s theories about winning hearts as well as minds. A young, insecure man emerges as the ancient world’s most effective political genius—it was done, Everitt shows, by understanding the Roman people. Now that she’s in office, Nancy Pelosi might want to peruse these books to make sure the breath of fresh air in Washington doesn’t quickly become stagnant.

ART

By Jack Livingston The relationship among humans, animals, and shelter has been a primary theme in the arts throughout history. Using this concept as a springboard to explore the holistic nature of existence, the American Visionary Art Museum presents Home & Beast, its twelfth annual major exhibition. Work by sixty outsider artists is organized in six categorical groupings: Animal Tales, Noble Beasts, Grazeland, Home Sweet Home, Best Nests, and Homecoming. Here creatures amass in a glorious menagerie alongside audacious images of domesticity. AVAM Founder and Director Rebecca Hoffberger chose Sarah Templin, AVAM registrar and cofounder

of the local textile-arts organization Broadcloth, as her cocurator. Templin’s curatorial efforts are evident; this show has a concise, more contemporary tenor, while retaining AVAM’s signature broad appeal. Hoffberger’s trademark use of hyper-operatic wall text infuses the exhibition with a sense of ethical egalitarianism. Pivotal works include claymation by cult artist Bruce Bickford, David Borghi’s schizoid paintings of looming simians, a religiously inspired interior from Loring Cornish’s Druid Hill rowhouse, and Christine Sefolosha’s dramatic watercolors full of swirling archetypal images.

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“Eve After The Fall” by David Borghi; photo by Dan Meyers

I celebrated in the wake of the “thumpin’” Republicans received at the hands of Democrats last November, but I also worried about whether Congress’s new majority leaders would actually do anything. Long a fan of George Lakoff, the University of California, Berkeley linguist turned political critic and trailblazer, I picked up his newest offering, Thinking Points: Communicating Our American Values and Vision, cowritten with the Rockridge Institute. In this slender paperback, Lakoff advances the idea that in order to turn the political tide, progressives must understand how and why conservatives have been more successful in communi-

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Chopin her social status and her living. In it, Edna Pontellier awakes from a stifling marriage to the possibility of a sensual and artistic life, through her affair with a much younger man at a Grand Isle resort. What is it about swampy climes that cause such slick and throbbing yearnings? It’s a wonder that folks in Louisiana get anything done at all. “I would give my life for my children but I wouldn’t give myself,” says Edna, trying to explain her behavior. This quote suggests Chopin was condemned less for her audacity at portraying a woman’s sexual awakening, than for suggesting that women be allowed to achieve creative fulfillment apart from their husbands and children. Birds do it, bees do it, and even, if public television is to be believed, walruses do it, and when they do, it looks ridiculous. One of the funniest sex scenes ever written occurs in Jeff Torrington’s Swing Hammer Swing! (1992), when Glaswegian hero Tom Clay (his torso a busy blur, his MacDougall at attention) gives the delectably slutty Becky McQuade a right seeing-to in 1960s Glasgow. After dancing “boozily” together, there follows “a little Simon and Garfumbling,” as Tom’s hands frolic like frisky salamanders up Becky’s dress, leading to “what old Walt Whitman calls ‘libidinous prongs’ forking up through me, that carnal revving of the senses as the moral brakes ease off.” (Oh, my!) Torrington’s homage to James Joyce’s Ulysses is a Scottish masterpiece, and is criminally and inexplicably out of print. Thieve, slander, swindle, donate soft-money—do whatever you have to do to find a copy. After sin comes punishment and no one does guilt with the exactitude of Graham Greene. Anyone who has ever loved and lost will empathize with the jealous misery portrayed in his finest novel, The End of the Affair (1951). Maurice Bendrix finds himself caught in a ménage-à-trois between his married lover, Sarah, and her Catholicism. “You didn’t own her all those years,” he rails at God at the end of their affair. “I owned her … When she slept, I was with her. Not You.” Maurice’s love and need for Sarah is barely

literature By Susan McCallum-Smith

Warning: This column is liable to get lusty. If shagadelic books are not your bag, baby, let me immediately direct your attention to the enjoyable blockbuster Sacred Games (2007), by Vikram Chandra. A Bollywood blend of The Big Sleep and The Sopranos set in Mumbai, its romantic interludes are fleeting and hard to find within its urban sprawl. The bar-balas and the chappan-churis will free your mind of impure thoughts—or not. So, off you go. The rest of you, read on. My husband was awarded a book token as a school prize at age 15. He chose 1928’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover—required, he still alleges, for an essay on D. H. Lawrence. Schoolboys hoping for mere smut are disappointed in Lawrence’s love story about a disaffected gentlewoman and her gamekeeper. As proved by the “not guilty” verdict in the book’s obscenity trial in Britain in 1960, the sex in Lady Chatterley’s Lover is neither promiscuous nor gratuitous. Constance and Oliver’s relationship exposes the sometimes tender, sometimes disappointing complexities of sex. Lawrence argued that romantic love is not only a meeting of minds, but of bodies, an argument our culture may have taken a little too much to heart, as we become increasingly obsessed with physical perfection and sexual performance to the detriment of good conversation and some giggles. Despite its revolutionary status, the book’s humorless tone and florid language make it a satirist’s delight. I’ve scanned my well-thumbed copy trying to find my favorite quote: “Ay, by eck, tha’s got a proper woman’s arse.” I can’t find it, and you know, I’m beginning to suspect I made it up. Almost thirty years before the cavorting of John Thomas with Lady Jane, Kate Chopin published The Awakening (1899). Promptly banned from libraries and decent society, the book cost PS-2006-807 Urbanite Feb/Mar

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discernible from hate, and after she passes away, he stews with selfish rage at what he perceives as her betrayal: “What did I do to you that you had to condemn me to life?” A gentler, more reflective take on love’s torments is found within Donald Hall’s poems about his late wife, the poet Jane Kenyon, which are included in White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems 1946–2006 (2006). Hall describes the bliss of their ordinary life, the bliss of a love fulfilled: “We ate, and talked, and went to bed / And slept. It was a miracle.” Two days after Jane died, he took their distressed dog for a walk, as reflected in the aptly titled poem, “Retriever:” But Gus hadn’t found her deep in the woods; he hadn’t brought her back as a branch in his teeth. Hall is 78 years old; based on the intelligence, sensuality, and humanity on display in this collection by our current U.S. Poet Laureate, he may well be the sexiest man alive. ■

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discovering what tax credits might aid restoration efforts. Thistel and Lyles tapped the helpful staff at the Maryland Room at the Enoch Pratt Free Library (400 Cathedral Street; 410-396-5430; www.epfl. net) for guidance in researching the history of their house—and the Stone Hill neighborhood.

resources

31 Play With Fire Writer Francine Halvorsen recommends the following places to purchase fire pits. The Tahoe, made by The California Firepit, can be found at www. firepit.com. The Lodge Camp Dutch Oven can be purchased through www.dutchovencookware.com. The Patio Hearth fire pit, made by Arctic, can be ordered through www2.yardiac.com, or go to www. arcticproducts.com to find a retailer near you. The Sojoe fire pit (www.sojoe.com) can be purchased through Dancing Fire Inc.’s website, www.dancing fire.com/sojoe.

48 History in the Making Mark Thistel and Robyne Lyles share some local resources that have helped in their Stone Hill rehab. Baltimore City’s Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) is the first stop for anyone interested in historic rehabs (410-396-7526; www.ci.baltimore.md.us/government/historic). Thistel and Lyles turned to nonprofit Jubilee Baltimore, Inc. (410-327-7373; www.jubileebaltimore. org) for help with a historic tax credit; staffers helped them locate insurance papers from 1811 and an 1833 ad for the property. Deed records found at the Maryland State Archives (350 Rowe Boulevard, Annapolis; 410-260-6400; www.msa.md.gov) helped Thistel and Lyles establish Elisha Tyson as owner of the property. The Maryland Historical Trust (www. marylandhistoricaltrust.net) is the go-to spot for

56 Stop! It’s Hammer Time! Writer Marianne Amoss suggests the following for more information on crafting. Squidfire.com is the website of Baltimore-based T-shirt company Squidfire. To keep up on the activities at Atomic Knit Night, visit the group’s blog at community.live journal.com/atomicknitforum. For more on Make and Craft magazines, go to www.makezine.com and www.craftzine.com. For more on ReadyMade, go to www.readymademag.com. You can buy the ReadyMade book How to Make (Almost) Everything through the website; all four publications can be found at Atomic Pop (3620 Falls Road; 410-3661004; www.atomicpop.biz). Three of the many websites about crafting are supernaturale.com, getcrafty.com, and craftster.com; all are devoted to cultivating craft culture with project ideas, advice, and opportunities for community interaction. The Church of Craft’s website is churchofcraft.org. For more information on innovative affordable housing, see page 67.

73 Recommended Art: Home & Beast is at the American Visionary Art Museum (800 Key Highway; 410-244-1900; www. avam.org) until September 2, 2007.

Music: Find out more about Errant Strike at their MySpace page (www.myspace.com/errantstrike) and on their website (www.screwmusicforever.com/errantstrike), where you can also listen to MP3s and purchase the band’s latest album.

COMING NEXT MONTH. What if we persuaded five unexpected pairs to collaborate? An architect and a television screenwriter? A typographer and a fiction author? What if some of the city’s most creative minds were to intersect at the junction of frustration and passion? What if we let them ask the questions, and we didn’t edit the answers? Look for the radical results in March.

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410.347.9898 www.bohemecafe.com open Monday - Friday 6:45 400 am - 4:00 EastpmPratt Street www.bohemecafe.com

(across from the Aquarium) 410.347.9898

breakfast lunch catering 400 East Pratt Street (across from the Aquarium) 410.347.9898

open Monday - Friday

open Monday - Friday 6:45 am - 4:00 pm 6:45 am - 4:00 pm www.bohemecafe.com www.bohemecafe.com

Diversified R

l t

CUSTOM BUILDERS Since 1976

223 S. Eaton Street in Brewers Hill w/ a garage call Lisa Ciofani for details

Lisa F. Ciofani, ABR, GRI 410-675-7653 cell 410-960-4555 2212 Boston Street Baltimore, MD 21231

the “smart” builder

Residential Commercial Design - Build Construction Management Systems Built Specialists

410-559-0000 www.ashleyhomes.com

MHBR No. 126

breathe books From Chakras to Shamans, music to meditation, bodywork to Buddhism - gifts, books and over 25 events a month for your mind, body and spirit. See our classes and workshops at www.breathebooks.com. Open: Mon - Sat 11-7 pm Sun 12-5 pm

Framing in Baltimore for over 20 years.

410.528.1868 www.fullcirclephoto.com 33 East 21st Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218 conservation framing, printing & gallery

810 W. 36th Street 410-235-READ

NEOPOL

full circle

Full Circle.indd 3

7/21/06 10:35:40 AM

Baltimore’s ONLY smokery, specializing in smoked seafood and meats, savory cheese pies, gourmet foods, smoked seasoning salts and chef’s supplies. Belvedere Square Marketplace, 529 E. Belvedere Square

410-433-7700

John Steven Ltd. Tavern hours: 11am till 2am - Mon thru Sun Restaurant hours: 11am to 11pm - Sun thru Thurs

Operating Hours Mon. - Fri.: 7 am - 5 pm Sat: 9 am - 2 pm *Breakfast till 11 am, Lunch till 5 pm

11am to midnight Fri & Sat

Brunch on Saturdays & Sundays: 9 am - 2 pm

1800 Thames Street Telephone: 410-327-5561 www.johnstevenltd.com

1000 Hull Street Baltimore, MD 410 837 0073

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Annabelle’s Fine Wine Shop and Bar 8210 Historic Main Street Ellicott City, MD 21043 410-750-8800 www.annabellsfinewine.com

1026 S. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21230 Phone 410.752.3810 Fax 410.752.0639 ccscorks@aol.com www.corksrestaurant.com

matthew

John

Hair Design

1014 Morton St Baltimore, MD 21201 410-685-7711

Bertha’s Restaurant & Bar Dinning Hours: Sun-Thurs 11:30 am-11 pm Fri-Sat 11:30 am-12 am Bar Hours: Mon-Sun 11:30 am-2 am

Monday - Thursday 4pm-2am Friday - Sunday 11:30-2am

JUDGE’S bench

8385 Main Street Ellicott City, MD 21043 410-465-3497

734 South Broadway 410-327-5795 www.berthas.com

Mad city Coffee

Cafe 10 International Coffee House

Nature’s finest grows to perfection

A Perfect Blend of Coffee & Community

10801 Hickory Ridge Rd Columbia, MD phone 410-964-8671 & Howard County General Hospital Main Lobby 5755 Cedar Lane Columbia, MD

6355 Ten Oaks Road Clarksville, MD 21029 410-531-7182 www.cafe10.com

Cacao Lane

The Admiral’s Cup

Bar & Grille

Resturant

8066 Main Street Ellicott City, MD 21043

1645 Thames Street Fells Point, MD 21231

Tel: 410.461.1378

410-522-6731 410-522-2727

www.cacaolane.net

Dionysus Restaurant and Lounge Located in Baltimore’s Cultural District, Dionysus offers serious diners and drinkers a relaxing haven. Enjoy Mediterranean cuisine in the attractive upstairs dining room or experience their fine selection of spirits at the cozy downstairs bar. Restaurant: Sun-Thurs 5pm-10pm, Fri-Sat 5pm-11pm, Sunday Brunch 10am-4pm Bar: Daily 5pm-2am 8 East Preston Street Baltimore, MD 410.244.1020

You haven’t been to Lillies yet? Gourmet Food Beautiful View Daily Food and Drink Specials Ample Free Parking Hours: Mon-Fri 4-10pm Dinner Sat & Sun 11-3pm Brunch 3-11pm Dinner 500 Harborview Drive, Baltimore, MD 21230 Phone 410 230 0704

urbanite march 07

Johnny’s Bistro on Main

{small plates. big pleasures} One of Baltimore’s Best Restaurants

• • • •

BALTIMORE MAGAZINE 2006

We now offer a few tapa items after the kitchen closes... so customers can eat and drink!

tapas private events wine bar now open speciality fare with a creative touch

8167 Main Street Ellicott City, MD 21043 phone:410-461-8210 www.johnnysbistro.com

1711 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD. 21201 410-332-0110 www.tapasteatro.net

Water-Front Dining, Open-Air Deck & Plenty of Parking HOURS Monday - Thrusday: 4 p.m. - 12 a.m. Friday - Saturday: 11:30 a.m. - 2 a.m. Sunday: 11 a.m. - 12 a.m.

www.littlehavanas.com 1325 Key Highway Baltimore, MD 21230 410-837-9903

A B OLTON HI LL B I S TRO

A cozy neighborhood bistro in Bolton Hill Open Tuesday thru Sunday for lite fare, dinner and Sunday Brunch Tues - Sat 5 - 10pm & Sun 5 - 9pm Sunday Brunch 10am - 2pm

11501 Bolton Street Baltimore, MD. 21217 410.383.8600 www.b-bistro.com

Dining Destinations CHIU’S SUSHI CINDY WOLF’S CHARLESTON FLEMINGS PRIME STEAKHOUSE & WINE BAR GRILLE 700 JAMES JOYCE IRISH PUB & RESTAURANT KOSMOS LOUNGE THE OCEANAIRE SEAFOOD ROOM PAZO RIGANO’S ROY’S TACO FIESTA WATERFRONT DELI WHOLE FOODS MARKET

Great Favorites

Harbor East

BENJAMIN LOVELL SHOES BIN 604 CINGULAR WIRELESS CITY SPORTS COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT DRIFTWOOD GAINES McHALE ANTIQUES & HOME HANDBAGS AND THE CITY THE HARBOR BANK OF MARYLAND HARBOR CLEANERS HARBOR EAST DENTAL HARBOR NEWS INNER HARBOR EAST MARINA MARRIOTT WATERFRONT PAD THE PROMENADE AT HARBOR EAST SPA SANTÉ SOUTH MOON UNDER SPINNAKER BAY THE URBAN ADVENTURE CO. THE VUE

WITH REGIONAL AMERICAN CUISINE TO ETHNIC CREATIONS

Coming Soon

Dining

from around the world, the restaurants of Harbor East offer ﬁne food that are unrivaled in the area. When you’re looking for a truly memorable dining experience, look no further.

With eleven square blocks designated and designed to become the center of activity for the Baltimore/Washington region, Harbor East offers retail shops, residences, hotels, ofﬁces, tourism and entertainment. It’s the urban experience reinvigorated and redeﬁned. Be part of this truly one-of-a-kind experience and tap into the vibrancy of the east coast’s boldest new neighborhood.

ARHAUS FOUR SEASONS HOTEL AND PRIVATE RESIDENCES LANDMARK THEATRES LEBANESE TAVERNA MARYLAND ATHLETIC CLUB HARBOR EAST

Eat. Drink. Dine. Live. Shop. Play. Stay.

w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m m a r c h 0 7

eye to eye

Sometimes what seems like a normal situation is actually filled with unexpected meaning. On our way to photograph December’s cover, Jason Okutake, Urbanite’s designer, and I passed this unassuming corner near Glen Burnie. Not only an intersection of roads but also of random information, it jumped out at us as particularly significant. Besides the subdivision sign—classic nomenclature—the one-way sign, the crossing and campaign signs, the ubiquitous white picket fence, and the seemingly misplaced fire hydrant all add up to a very complex and layered story. —Alex Castro

urbanite march 07

THE ALL-WHEEL DRIVE 2007

SUBARU LEGACY 2.5i GT LIMITED

$24,988

Lease for only

or $298 /

Mo.

$0 Security Deposit Required

Turbo with moonroof and leather seats *$24,998 plus tax, tags & freight. A lease payment for 42 months based on $298 per month, 10K miles per year and $2,800 down. Does not include include tax, tags or acquisition fee. **Based on Insurance Institute for Highway Safety 40-mph offset frontal crash test, 31-mph side impact test, and 20-mph rearimpact test (12/4/05). The ABC’s of Safety: Air bags. Buckle up. Children in backseat.

subaru.com North Point Blvd. & Kane St., I-95, Exit 59, Eastern Avenue or I-895 Exit 12 Lombard Street

410-633-9000

Toll Free 1-800-736-1296 • www.pennsubaru.com RETAIL SERVICE HOURS: M-F 7 am - 6 pm Sat. 8 am - 3 pm w w w. u r b a n i t e b a l t i m o re . c o m m a r c h 0 7

window worries and budget blues. • Pella® replacement windows and doors are on sale NOW. • Shop at home or in our store with a Pella professional. • Relax, we install. • Wide range of choices — Pella ﬁts your style and budget.

No payments for 6 months!*

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each installed Pella replacement window, patio door or entry door*

PELLA SHOWROOMS K . C . C O M PA N Y, I N C . w w w. d c . p e l l a . c o m Annapolis • Beltsville • Bethesda • Easton • Falls Church • Frederick • Lewes • Salisbury • Timonium

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window & door

replacement

*Does not apply to ProLine® products. Other restrictions may apply. See stores for details. Must be installed by Pella professionals. Not valid with any other offer or promotion. Valid for replacement projects only. Financing available to qualified customers only. Offers end 02/28/07. © 2007 Pella Corporation MHIC #38731