Traffic will be a mess just south of Penn Station today, as the University of Baltimore holds a ground-breaking ceremony for a new law school building.
Westbound Mount Royal Avenue has been closed between Charles and St. Paul streets for the noon ceremony, and drivers are being detoured around the big tent set up for the event. Those lanes are scheduled to reopen between 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
Eastbound lanes remained open this morning, but all of the commotion from the event will probably slow things down.
Gov. Martin O'Malley and several hundred other people are expected to attend the grounbreaking for the John and Frances Angelos Law Center. The $107 million, 190,000-square-foot building at the northeast corner of Charles and Mount Royal will provide additional space for the law school, the school says.
In 2008, the university announced a $5 million matching pledge from law alum Peter Angelos (Class of '61) to support construction of the building. It will retain the name of the existing facility, the John and Frances Angelos Law Center, after Angelos' parents, according to the school. This year, the university announced a second $5 million donation from Angelos, which allowed the school to reach its goal of $15 million in private funding for the building. The remaining funds will be provided by the state.
Architectural rendering courtesy of the University of Baltimore