BALTIMORE — Baltimore City's "CharmTV" channel is planning to move from downtown to the Penn-North neighborhood, and hopes that its new headquarters could help boost the West Baltimore community.
CharmTV is run by the city's Office of Cable & Communications, on Channel 25 and online. Today, the city's Urban Design and Architecture Advisory Panel reviewed the proposed design for the new building.
The 19,950-square-foot building would be on a vacant lot on Pennsylvania Avenue between Clifton and Woodbrook avenues.
The goal is not just to provide a permanent home for the production studio, but also to serve as a community incubator - provide educational space, promote cultural and creative activity in the Black Arts District, and stimulate economic development in Penn-North.
The design includes the possibility for a second phase of private development, including homes or apartments with a community room and a courtyard.
Architect Pavlina Ilieva, PI.KL Studio co-founder and UDAAP member, noted there is also an effort to get control of the Woodbrook/Clifton corner for that private development.
She said the surrounding residential streets are "lovely," and there aren't many vacant buildings, with many managing "to keep their integrity" beyond deteriorating conditions.
The property is set to include a community event space, a community production studio, and a cafe (although Ilieva said the cafe wasn't designed as "a commercial cafe," just a small cafe for the building itself).
The site design was overwhelmingly praised during the UDAAP meeting, although some concerns were raised about the building acknowledging the bus stop that's in front of the planned community center and some other relationships to the community.
Architect and panel member Osborne Anthony said it's "certainly in a very challenging area of town," but it takes projects like this to spur change.
"Communities are built over generations, they're not built overnight, but you need a very purposeful" plan to be able to get there, Anthony said.
Landscape architect Sharon Bradley said about the project:
It's a beautiful expression of the Black Arts District. It's a building as art.
