A Guide to Baltimore Architecture

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat dated guide to historic landmarks
Review: Baltimore is a hard city to get your hands around. It's the quintessential image of urban decay, poor, crime-ridden, but also surprisingly hospitable and absolutely crammed with exceptional historical architecture. Poverty, in this case, has proved to be the best preserver, and most of Baltimore's lovely old churches and public buildings are still with us in their somewhat decrepit state.

This book summarizes the history and significance of these sites. It largely ingores Baltimore's modern structures (Myerhoff, Harborplace, Eisenhower Library, etc...), and there are even some conspicuous gaps in the presentation of the historic ensemble. The Lyric Opera House, for example, is completely absent. Pimlico, ditto. Memorial Stadium? Also, this book was published in 1997, which makes it rather dated and downright ancient in the world of architectural surveys. Time for a new edition. And fill in those holes!

Rating:
Summary: A Guide to Baltimore Architecture
Review: Excellent, accessible book filled with quality information

Rating:
Summary: Significant Gaps!
Review: This book has some significant gaps in its coverage of modern buildings in Baltimore. A partner in our firm (an FAIA) was going to visit the city, and had me call up the local AIA for some recommendations, particularly good recent projects and arts-related buildings. It didn't seem like that much had been going on recently in Baltimore, so they suggested I get this book. Imagine my surprise when I couldn't find any mention of the Lyric Theater or the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall anywhere! From what the AIA and some research on the web told me, these are major public buildings, worth seeing based on their architectural merit. One is older with some new work, the other 20 years old, so it's not as though they're too new to be included. Is it simply that the various authors of this book didn't like those buildings? If so, why couldn't they have included them, but with a critique so that others could make up their own minds? What other notable buildings were left out? The truly flabbergasting part was locating, on the maps provided, where the Lyric and Meyerhoff are, in blank areas among all kinds of churches and old houses. History is great, but it keeps going.

Aside from that, the information for those buildings included in this guide seemed thorough, and the designer bios at the back were a nice touch.