The intersection of President and Fayette streets should be an inviting gateway to downtown Baltimore, the front door to the Inner Harbor for drivers heading south on Interstate 83.
But those expecting a cheery welcome may get a completely different impression when they see concrete barriers around the police headquarters, and traffic cones, barrels, barricades and a sea of police cars clogging nearby Baltimore Street. Everything about the area seems to say: Keep Out. Go Home. Stay Away.
The area in front of Pennsylvania Station is just as bad. With construction finally complete on a garage and plaza in front of the historic train station, this was to be the year when all the temporary fences would finally disappear. Instead, visitors have to trudge past orange and white bollards and other obstructions that make Penn Station seem as inaccessible as ever.
Nine months after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington forced communities around the country to improve security, Baltimore might be a safer city because of measures taken to protect public buildings and monuments. But it has also become an uglier city, with many landmarks and thoroughfares now marred by those same security measures.
From the World Trade Center on Pratt Street to the Garmatz Federal Courthouse to the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, barriers, bollards and crowd-control fences now help keep people and vehicles away from public buildings. But they also work against local efforts to promote tourism and make public buildings accessible.
Baltimore is not alone. Entrances to the U.S. Capitol and Library of Congress in Washington have become repositories for all manner of guard stations, planters and giant sewer pipes positioned to keep out unwanted traffic.
In other towns, including Annapolis and Towson, concrete and wire barriers, surveillance cameras and new search procedures have been increased or introduced; streets have been closed or turned into parking lots in the name of public safety.
To protect and offend
Some security measures are so out of keeping with their surroundings that members of the American Society of Landscape Architects held a news conference and walking tour in Washington last week to point out the problems they see.
Last fall, the organization assembled a group called the Security Design Coalition to promote the need for better security designs. Its members say the temporary measures taken shortly after Sept. 11 were fully understandable. But they fear that if such barriers become permanent fixtures, Americans could lose their sense of heritage and connection to their environment. They say it's important to balance security measures with the need to maintain a free and open society.
"Done well, security measures protect people and property, while clearly demonstrating that this nation continues to rest on a close relationship between its people and its government," said Rodney Swink, ASLA president. "Done poorly, security will make citizens fearful and erect literal barriers to the public's interaction with the government it has established."
"It's clear that security needs to be heightened, but we need not add to the public alarm nor diminish our values in the way we respond to the threat," said Bob Peck, president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, a partner in the coalition. "We should not place off limits or render inhospitable the public places that ... remind us of our history and democratic heritage."
A key issue involves the makeshift nature of many post-Sept. 11 security measures. Because reaction time was critical, many property owners used materials and products that were readily available, such as jersey barriers, pylons and plastic, sand-filled barrels used as car-crash cushions. Many of these off-the-shelf products were made for use along highways and are inappropriate for urban settings such as a Beaux Arts courthouse or civic plaza.
Early on, the conspicuous nature of these architectural quick fixes may have been seen as a plus: They demonstrated that someone had taken precautions, however ad hoc. They stood out, and that was the point.
As the months have passed, it's become clear that the need for improved security will not go away. But it's become equally clear that property owners need to move beyond short-term solutions and find strategies for permanent improvements that are just as effective in deterring attacks but more appropriate for their settings.
Access, American-style
The Security Design Coalition would like to see long-range measures that are more in keeping with the beauty and dignity of places such as the Capitol or the Supreme Court, said Martha Droge, an urban planner with Ayers Saint Gross of Baltimore and Washington.
"It takes time. Great cities are built in generations, not days or weeks," she said. But "that's what designers can bring to the process."
Every intervention for the long term "should add to the public space over the long term," she added. "It shows we have a sense of self-respect."
Other members of the Security Design Coalition include the American Institute of Architects; American Planning Association; Scenic America; National Trust for Historic Preservation; Society of Environmental Graphic Design and Downtown DC Business Improvement District.
"As design professionals and as those who revere the symbolic statements our country makes through its buildings and public places, we have an obligation to protect the defining characteristics of America that these areas represent," said Jeff Soule, policy director for the American Planning Association. "These places must remain accessible to the people."
Droge said the first step in developing a long-range security program typically would be for a building owner to conduct a "threat assessment" and "risk assessment" to determine what its priorities should be, whether it's limiting pedestrian entry points or preventing vehicles from encroaching along the perimeter. The same solution does not work for every situation, she said. "It all depends on what you're trying to guard against."
Once the assessments are done, architects and landscape architects can help come up with a strategy for making permanent improvements. Manu-facturers have already come up with a wide range of suitable security products, such as benches that can double as bollards, she said.
"It's not a question of reinventing the wheel. It's improving the wheel. It's making a fancier wheel."
In Baltimore, one agency ought to take the lead on coordinating security measures for the public realm and reviewing proposed designs. A logical choice would be Baltimore's planning department, which already monitors changes to the urban landscape.
As the landscape architects suggest, no one disputes the need to improve security. The challenge is finding ways to protect cherished buildings and public spaces in ways that won't detract from the qualities that make them worth protecting in the first place.