The public space crusaders over at the Project for Public Spaces (PPS) have a nice breakdown of downtown Baltimore’s new Open Space Plan released at the end of February. Taking in an impressive area of some 125 city blocks, the plan was developed by the Downtown Partnernship of Baltimore with funding from the Baltimore City Department of Planning and additional support from the Baltimore Development Corporation. PPS also provided assistance in conjunction with local landscape architecture firm  Mahan Rykiel.

Previous attempts at sprucing up Baltimore’s downtown core overseen by the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore include the $7.5M renovation of Charles Center Plaza, which in 2009 won the Maryland Award from the Maryland and Potomac Chapters of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Perhaps not surprisingly, Mahan Rykiel Associates (MRA) was also the landscape architecture, urban design and planning firm of record for that project.

Among other things, the plan calls for better networking of downtown’s public spaces. I’ll be sure to post more on specifics of the plan as soon as I am able to obtain a copy. For now, please check out the following links for further details.

For more from PPS, take a look at their Placemaking Blog:

http://www.pps.org/blog/a-focus-on-place-for-downtown-baltimores-new-master-plan/

For more on the renovation of Charles Center Plaza:

http://www.bmoremedia.com/devnews/mahanrykielaslawarad121509.aspx

For more on Downtown Baltimore’s Open Space Plan:

http://baltimorerealestate.citybizlist.com/1/2011/2/27/Downtown-Baltimore-Open-Space-Master-Plan-Unveiled.aspx