Ryland Homes held a grand opening this month for St. Clair Condominiums, a 156-unit development with prices starting at $69,900.
Aimed at first-time buyers and "empty nesters," the residences range in size from 990 to 1,090 square feet. Standard features include a balcony or patio, gourmet kitchens, spacious living/dining areas and up to two full bathrooms per unit.
The community is located on St. Clair Drive, just west of Route 924 in Abingdon. Its sales and information center is open Sunday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Summit Chase
Trafalgar House Residential-Maryland has opened a section of 50 town houses at Summit Chase, a community in the Pikesville/Greenspring area of Baltimore County.
It is the third section of homes to be launched at Summit Chase by Trafalgar, which had sold 103 as of mid-November. The
company plans to build 224 in all.
Prices start below $175,000 for the three-level town houses, which have three bedrooms, eat-in kitchens, and cathedral ceilings in the bedrooms.
The entrance to Summit Chase is on Greenspring Avenue, one mile south of the Beltway between Old Court Road and Smith Avenue. The sales office is open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Morgan State University
John K. Ruff Inc. of Hunt Valley has been chosen over nine other bidders to be the general contractor for a $6.1 million renovation of Holmes Hall, a 40-year-old classroom building on the campus of Morgan State University. Notter & Associates of Washington is the architect.
Known by a distinctive clock tower, Holmes Hall will receive new mechanical and electrical systems, new floors, new walls and an elevator as part of the exterior and interior renovation. When work is completed in December 1993, it will house offices and classrooms of the departments of English, foreign languages, history, philosophy, religious studies, and arts and science.
The contract also includes the relocation of WEAA-FM from Holmes Hall to studios to be constructed in neighboring Banneker Hall. A statue of Frederick Douglass will also be moved from the east side of Holmes Hall to a more prominent location on the campus quadrangle.
Reforestation
More than 4,000 trees and shrubs are being planted as part of a $200,000 reforestation program for the New Haven Woods II residential development next to Gunpowder State Park in Baltimore County.
Ecological Restoration and Management Inc. of Towson has been awarded a contract for the reforestation of more than 19 acres at Days Cove, near the state park. The property's owner and developer is James Keelty and Co.
Work began this fall and will continue through the spring and fall of 1993. Planting will take place on five sites throughout the park and adjacent development. Among the trees to be planted are red maple, sweet gum, persimmon, red oak, flowering dogwood, silky dogwood and cottonwood.
The project is being carried out in compliance with Maryland's Forest Conservation Act, which requires no net loss of forested lands in the state. Land developers, contractors and
builders are required to make up for any loss of trees that may occur during land development and construction by planting a like amount elsewhere. The law became effective Jan. 1.
Around the region:
* Chateau Builders recently appointed sales managers for two ++ new communities it is building.
F. Eugene Plott has been named sales manager of Brookfield Farm, a luxury home community in Ellicott City, and Joanne Colvin has been named sales manager for Glyndon Gate, a community of 29 single-family homes and 65 town houses in Glyndon.
* Arc Studios Inc., a Fells Point-based design firm owned by Kent Dunn and Daniel Levin, has been commissioned to design and build a new first floor for the Wharf Rat-Camden Yards restaurant at Pratt and Sharp streets.
The building was formerly known as P. J. Cricketts and was purchased earlier this year by Bill Oliver, who also owns the Wharf Rat bar in Fells Point.
* Gertrude Hellman Ginsburg, founder of the Maryland Education Coalition, received the 1992 Frances Morton Froelicher Civic Statesmanship Award from Baltimore's Citizens' Planning and Housing Association.