Sep 16, 2008
Which design firm gets your vote?
The University of Baltimore has selected five architecture firms as finalists to design its new law school, scheduled to open in 2012.
A blue-ribbon panel of respected architects from across the country will hear the proposals for the $107 million, 190,000-square-foot building Nov. 11. But I say why wait that long? And who needs a blue-ribbon panel?
That’s right, we’re asking you! Which architect would you pick to create the building for the corner of Charles Street and Mount Royal Avenue? Granted, we won’t know about their concepts until the November presentations, but let’s assume past work indicates an architect’s preferred style.
So — do you like SmithGroup, which designed Discovery Communications’ world headquarters in Silver Spring? Ziger/Snead, which created the unique Brown Center at the Maryland Institute College of Art?
How about Ayers/Saint/Gross Inc., which did the site planning for the student housing at Charles Common? Or Cho Benn Holback + Associates Inc., which gave us the Orleans Street branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library?
Maybe your tastes run toward Harvard B-school’s master planner, Moshe Safdie and Associates Inc., which would join forces with Hord|Coplan|Macht.
Or do you have your own ideas about what the new UB law school should look like?
DANNY JACOBS, Legal Affairs Writer
The international firms, including their principals, will do all the heavy lifting in the design of the new UB building. That is one of the condiitions of the commission, so asking questions about the local affiliates is a little surprising. it’s kind of like asking which local lawyer would be the best affiliate in an O.J. type trial. It doesn’t matter. He/she won’t be doing the work. Your toss-off statement about Moshe Safdie joining forces with Hord|Coplan|Macht, as if the two were co-venturers, reminds one of the joke about the lion lying down with the lamb: the lamb won’t get much sleep.