Proposal for Constellation rocks the boat

The Baltimore Sun

What would Baltimore's Inner Harbor be without the Constellation?

Area residents and visitors may get to find out if a designer's vision becomes reality.

Architects hired to recommend ideas for improving the Pratt Street corridor have floated the idea of moving the historic vessel from Constellation Pier, near the Harborplace shopping pavilions.

Matthew Poe, an architect with Ayers Saint Gross, said during a recent working session with Baltimore's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel that moving the vessel would enable people to see more of the water's surface from the shoreline.

His firm has prepared a rendering that shows the Inner Harbor without the Constellation, but with its 16-year-old visitor center still in place.

Moving the ship is one of many ideas for the harbor that have surfaced recently, such as a more elaborate Santa Claus House between the Harborplace pavilions in the winter.

The design team, led by Ayers Saint Gross and Olin Partnership, has been throwing out ideas to get reactions from property owners and other "stakeholders" along Pratt Street. Designers say they aim to come up with a final set of recommendations by the end of summer.

The Constellation, an 1854 Navy warship that has been restored to its Civil War appearance, has been berthed at the Inner Harbor on and off for nearly 40 years.

It was moved there in 1969, replacing the old Port Welcome tour boat, which moved to the harbor's west shore. The Constellation was moved away in 1971, while the city built a pier for it, and returned in 1972. It was moved out of the harbor in 1996 for an $8 million restoration and returned in 1999.

The idea of moving it again was not well received by groups that operate the vessel as a public museum, which draws nearly 100,000 visitors a year.

"It's the centerpiece of the Inner Harbor," said Bill Cunningham, vice president of the Living Classrooms Foundation, the nonprofit organization with a subsidiary that operates the Constellation and uses visitor fees to maintain the vessel.

"It's good to think out of the box for Pratt Street," Cunningham said. But "the Constellation is Baltimore, just like the aquarium is. I don't see it moving. That's been our history, and I think it will continue to be."

The Constellation's attendance is largely dependent on its prominent location near Harborplace and the National Aquarium in Baltimore, said Christopher Rowsom, executive director of the USS Constellation Museum. Moving it away from Pratt and Light streets "could affect our visibility," he said.

The location of the Constellation was determined in a 1964 master plan for the Inner Harbor by Wallace, McHarg, Roberts and Todd. The master plan showed a new pier in place of the city's old Pier One, with the Constellation beside it, said Martin Millspaugh, former chief executive of Charles Center-Inner Harbor Management Inc., the agency that starting managing development around the harbor in 1965.

Millspaugh said he was astonished to see a rendering in the newspaper that showed the Inner Harbor without the Constellation.

"From the very beginning, the Constellation has been the sculptural focal point of the urban design of the entire Inner Harbor development," Millspaugh said.

M. Jay Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., a quasi-public agency that oversees downtown development, attended the meeting at which Poe suggested moving the Constellation.

Brodie said he didn't say anything about the idea during the meeting because he "was being polite." At some time, he said, he plans to have a discussion with the architects about the vessel's historical significance and key role in terms of the urban design of the harbor.

He said the designers would have to present "a compelling reason" for moving the Constellation before the city would seriously consider the idea, and so far he has not heard one.

ed.gunts@baltsun.com

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