Baltimore21201.Com

Let's All Buy a Brick; Support a Home for Our Little, and Not-So-Little Ones.

A big, 24 year-old mother has given birth to a really big, healthy baby in Baltimore. The mother's name is Felix. The father is, for the time-being, unknown. Yep, it seems that Mother Felix was "sleeping around" prior to coming to Baltimore -- her new-born is, for now, unnamed also.

So what to do to support this unwed mother... I have the answer. Buy a brick. Yes, a brick.

...I first worked on a Zoomerang project for the Baltimore Zoo with some folks from Doner Advertising in 1998 (when Doner was on N Charles Street) and I've admired the Baltimore Zoo ever since. International attention to our zoo has been building with the announcement that Mother Felix was with child... er, calf.

Support for our Baltimore zoo is more important now than ever. And, I know that sometimes it's difficult to write a check to a general fund and not see anything you can hold in your hand.

You can't hold these bricks in your hand; you can walk on them, though. And, they will be engraved with your names and message. How's this for a thought: Buy a separate brick for each of your children. Once the bricks are installed take the kids for a grand field trip to find their names.

Let's make good things happen for the Baltimore Zoo. It will happen just one brick at a time.

By the way, do you know that the Baltimore Zoo operates a Penguin Cam?

Check it out during daylight hours. It couldn't be more fun.

The Walters Art Museum Director, Gary Vikan, Tells Stories

And, what entertaining and extraordinary stories they are. Vikan joined forces with Baltimore's NPR station, WYPR, a few months back and is hosting a weekly feature, Postcards from The Walters. It's broadcast Monday mornings at 9:35. However, you don't have to be tuned-in to listen.

The Walters website has a link to WYPR where the previous months audio postcards are archived.

I first learned of Vikan's natural story-telling ability when he made a presentation on branding Baltimore at one of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation's lunchtime forums.

I wrote him a note to thank him for his funny, clever, and informative talk. (It takes some on-stage savvy and bravado to get a room full of architecture enthusiasts laughing out loud. He has that savvy and more.) A few weeks later he invited me to lunch. That's when I truly learned what a story-teller he is. Just click here - Postcards from The Walters - and you'll be hooked. You'll also find out why the first Walters in Baltimore wasn't a museum at all. It was a bath house! Yep, a bath house.

Belly of the Beast? Nope. Today, I Was in the Brain of the Beast!

If you enjoy Baltimore 21201... If you've lived in Baltimore for any period of time... If you love our city and its landmarks... and, if you've ever dreamed about being in a seemingly impossible place to visit... then you must have thought about being in the clock room of the Bromo Seltzer Tower. I was there today. It was a dream fulfilled. I was INSIDE the clocks.

I'm a fairly new member of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation and while I attend their Forum Series, I didn't know how wonderful these tours could be. Adam Blumenthal, BAF's executive director, served as tour guide and was a wealth of information. (He also drives an old, cranky, brass-cage elevator like a veteran.)

Adam found me -- and my blog -- by way of looking for information on Baltimore's BG&E building conversion to luxury apartments. It seems that if you Google "BG&E Building" this blog hits the top of the charts. Odd, but true.


Adam began the tour on the ground floor by way of explaining the footprint of the building. As we arrived on the third floor, we saw drawings of the entire building -- inside and out -- including the Bromo Seltzer bottle that was on top decades ago. We learned about the wind sheer that probably caused the steel and glass advertising fixture to be removed.

Here's the deal: If you want an opportunity like the one I had today, join the Baltimore Architecture Foundation and every group like it.

And on some of these tours be prepared to climb some radical stairs. It's all worth it.

Baltimore's Charles Street Needs This Trolley - Jump On Board!

I've held my breath and crossed my fingers over the past couple of years hoping that Phase I of the Trolley Study would go well. According to a June 10th press release from the Charles Street Development Corporation, it did. It went very well.

Visit their handsome, new website and you can view the proposed route map, other animations and more.

There are two public meetings this month where you can learn more about this vital project:

Thursday, the 21st, at the Baltimore Convention Center, 6PM.

And Monday, the 25th at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 6PM.

Get on board with the project and tell everyone that you support a fixed rail system to connect the Inner Harbor with Johns Hopkins and all points in between.

Charles Center Plaza - Official Opening: June 15th

This Friday, June 15th, 12 Noon. 14-months and 7.4 million dollars in the making. The opening of the new Plaza at Charles Center, Baltimore.

Dignitaries. Speeches. Music, eats and other treats.

Over the weekend we wondered if the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore and the construction company could pull off the opening on schedule. It looked like there was still a long way to go. Here's how the project looked mid-morning today.

By noon all of the sod had been laid and work was progressing on the historic marker. Still, there's quite a lot of work to complete. The clock's ticking. 3.5-days and counting.

History Online: A Baltimore Photo Database

The Baltimore Museum of Industry has an outstanding, search-able database of photographs and documents that chronicles much of the twentieth century in Charm City. It's a vast collection from Baltimore Gas & Electric.

Visit BMI's Things to See page and check out their Online Collection.

BMI's website reports, "Both prints and negatives depict various scenes from Baltimore and the surrounding region. Taken as part of the company’s (BG&E's) daily operations, these photos capture many lost scenes of Baltimore life, including the city’s architecture, citizens, and businesses.  Because the BG&E photographers captured pictures of life in Baltimore across the span of the 20th century, the BG&E Collection highlights the changing commercial, cultural, and physical landscapes of Baltimore".

While I was meandering through the collection, looking at photos of the grand department stores, restaurants and lunch counters, and theatres on Lexington Street, I couldn't help thinking of the Baltimore Sun's Jacques Kelly. Looking at many of the photos, I felt as if I'd been there. And then I realized... I HAD been there by way of reading Kelly's recounts and recollections of times past in the Sun.