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Klaus Philipsen
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The State of Downtown, according to its boosters, the various downtown BIDs, is always good. To many residents, however their downtown is a rather sad affair, at least since the pandemic. The BIDs continue to clean and sweep with their uniformed "ambassadors" which are a familiar site in many US cities, but the clean streets are largely empty. Retail sales are down, hotel and office occupancies are scary, and whole office towers can be bought for a lot less than a nice condo in New York costs.
The Baltimore SUN attributes the drastic decline in property values to a “Failure to adapt" which "prompts a shift in properties" and a"$1B commercial crash", meaning that more than $1 billion in commercial property value has been erased from Baltimore since 2020 (Baltimore SUN, 4/19/26)
Many cities all around the US are undergoing similar office tower real estate crashes in their downtown, see sinking occupancy rates for offices, hotels and much less foot traffic. Fewer people out and about also means fewer tourist exploring an area which they perceive as a dead zone, a typical death spiral. Is "failure to adapt” really the true cause of the common malaise?
Similar to most cities, Baltimore has many plans and ideas, few that are implemented.
The Urban Land Institute "Advisory Panels" are frequently called in to come up with new ideas or concepts that worked elsewhere. Still most downtowns are riddled with key parcels that are surface parking lots, vacant lots or abandoned buildings. Baltimore's "Superblock" (actually an array of several city blocks in Baltimore's historic retail district) has not moved forward in early 20 years and recently burnt half way down in a giant five-alarm fire. Many other cities can point to similar land assemblies that failed to become the envisioned urban renewal. The CBD is is crisis.
Denver has a downtown development authority and a 2025 downtown area plan. The authority just finished an idea competition and its third ULI Advisory Panel about downtown. Its once
famed Pavilions downtown mall a three-level, open-air shopping center with a movie theater, a bowling alley, 1,000 total parking spaces and a connection to the 16th Street shuttle and RTD. Only 28 years old, the complex is now considered "failing". Before it had to be fully shuttered, the City bought it and is now in the driver's seat. Instead of giving it to developer without any restrictions (like Baltimore did with its once famous HarborPlace), Denver's idea competition and ULI Advisory panel brainstormed a framework that will steer the redevelopment in a public-private partnership somewhat tailored around the concept of the very successful Denver Union Station TOD redevelopment. Maybe to the surprise of the Mayor, the ULI panel proposed a use that includes a large open space, i.e. something that doesn't create income in itself. The concepts presented in April centered around the creation of a "social district". In spite of the drastic reduction of leasable space Mayor Johnston found the proposals "incredibly compelling".
Somewhere between the CBD and the CSD Denver just completed the rebuild of its 16th Street open air shopping mall, originally designed by Ian Pei. The pedestrian mall connects the government district and the tremendously successful Union Station TOD with two large transit nodes on the ends.
Atlanta, also a city with an ailing downtown, is also working hard on investments that aim to reconnect the isolated CBD. By covering a small portion of a sunken freeway with a park on top (the Stitch) Atlanta Downtown hopes for a surge of affordable housing along both sides stitching downtown to the disinvested neighborhoods to the northeast. So far, this project exists only on paper.
By contrast, the construction of the 6 million square foot, $5 bn mixed-use development Centennial Yards over 50 acres of already partially decked railroad tracks (the Gulch) to revive its ailing southern part of downtown is well underway. This new downtown adjacent area will create a connection to the State Farm Arena and Mercedes Benz stadium. Per investor CIM's managing director Brian McGowan there is no sense that the new development would take downtown's butter off the bread, a frequent notion of critics who see urban development as a zero sum game.
Next door to Centennial Yards a Tech Village is in the making which revives the oldest historic core (SoDo) with 25 projects going on all at once. Especially the South Downtown project, fueled by the wealthy patron David Cummings who wants to give local start-ups a home in village type of setting. His concept looks a bit like a "social district". Already the website claims that the Atlanta Tech Village is ...the 4th largest tech space in the U.S. with deep connections to Atlanta’s business and investment community."
Both, Denver and Atlanta are cities with a high growth rates in the core city and the region, both have huge land areas gained through annexation. A comparison to shrinking industrial legacy cities like St Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland or Baltimore comparison is not fair.
Still, there are lessons for the transformations of a downtown. Many downtowns are choked and isolated by multi-lane high capacity streets that were the late result of Eisenhower's Interstate plans and overly destructive urban renewal plans. Dallas built a successful deck, Rochester filled a section of its inner beltway, Boston famously built the ditch and Seattle buried its elevated freeway.
To change the DNA of the old financial district from 9-5 office towers to a 24/7 "social district" neighborhood will take more than stitching across barriers to the surrounding areas, more than plans, more than adaptive reuse that brings tCIhousands residents into what used to be a sterile office district. There will still be too few feet on the ground. The new social district will even take more than bringing visitors to conventions, or events or tourists to see architectural attractions.
More than anything, it takes that these various elements of revival work in synergy, that there are clear priorities set and investments are made in a strategic, intentional and systematic manner. The plans need to be outcome centered and result in key downtown routes to be free of large vacant dilapidated buildings or vacant lots that are dreadful or even scary to pass.
Baltimore's new Planning Director and now Housing Commissioner Tim Keane who came from leading the planning department of Atlanta likes to stress design and urban form as a driver for planning. He says, "a whole bunch of plans don't make a city", unless they all aim for the same well defined objective. (He applied those principles to Atlanta's comprehensive plan).
Downtown Rise plan is Baltimore’s case in point of a well-intentioned plan that lacks focus, clear priorities, or a well defined outcome. The plan is mostly focused on better streetscapes and more what planners came to call “walkability”. This is laudable, but the document not only treats all streets the same instead of delineating the most important pedestrian routes. Streetscaping will not make downtown less deserted or revert the giant tax losses. The former Mechanic Theater lot right at the heart of downtown and adjacent to a subway stop should be a high priority.
In Baltimore new financial incentives are available now with the close of the legislative session which gave downtown a tax credit option that is supposed to make investment more lucrative. Atlanta is reviewing the renewal of their downtown TIF District which Atlanta Downtown COO Jennifer Ball calls their most successful tool.
Nothing will bring the vitality back that downtowns used to have when the offices were filled and shopping happened here and not in malls or online. The idea of a "Social District" may provide an answer, serving new residents and visitors alike. Living, working, shopping, entertaining and visiting are needed. People in the street beget more people. So far, attractions bring people in for shows, games and events and leave right afterwards. For them to stay downtown needs more than electronic billboards. It needs viable, lively and attractive "third places". The privatization of Baltimore's existing HarborPlace "third space" is the opposite of making parts of the private Denver Pavilions public.
All improvements have to work seamlessly together. Baltimore has also a new CEO of the economic development agency BDC. He is revamping the agency to one that leads instead of reacts. this is a good goal. As the CEO of Baltimore's Downtown Partnership says in her 2025 report:
Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
Related articles on this blog:
The Baltimore SUN attributes the drastic decline in property values to a “Failure to adapt" which "prompts a shift in properties" and a"$1B commercial crash", meaning that more than $1 billion in commercial property value has been erased from Baltimore since 2020 (Baltimore SUN, 4/19/26)
Many cities all around the US are undergoing similar office tower real estate crashes in their downtown, see sinking occupancy rates for offices, hotels and much less foot traffic. Fewer people out and about also means fewer tourist exploring an area which they perceive as a dead zone, a typical death spiral. Is "failure to adapt” really the true cause of the common malaise?
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The State of Downtown (Atlanta) 2025 cover
[/td]Similar to most cities, Baltimore has many plans and ideas, few that are implemented.
The Urban Land Institute "Advisory Panels" are frequently called in to come up with new ideas or concepts that worked elsewhere. Still most downtowns are riddled with key parcels that are surface parking lots, vacant lots or abandoned buildings. Baltimore's "Superblock" (actually an array of several city blocks in Baltimore's historic retail district) has not moved forward in early 20 years and recently burnt half way down in a giant five-alarm fire. Many other cities can point to similar land assemblies that failed to become the envisioned urban renewal. The CBD is is crisis.
Meanwhile, most cities are actively trying to steer the ship in new directions.
[td]
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Denver Pavilions
[/td]famed Pavilions downtown mall a three-level, open-air shopping center with a movie theater, a bowling alley, 1,000 total parking spaces and a connection to the 16th Street shuttle and RTD. Only 28 years old, the complex is now considered "failing". Before it had to be fully shuttered, the City bought it and is now in the driver's seat. Instead of giving it to developer without any restrictions (like Baltimore did with its once famous HarborPlace), Denver's idea competition and ULI Advisory panel brainstormed a framework that will steer the redevelopment in a public-private partnership somewhat tailored around the concept of the very successful Denver Union Station TOD redevelopment. Maybe to the surprise of the Mayor, the ULI panel proposed a use that includes a large open space, i.e. something that doesn't create income in itself. The concepts presented in April centered around the creation of a "social district". In spite of the drastic reduction of leasable space Mayor Johnston found the proposals "incredibly compelling".
[td]
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Denver Pavilions (Photo: Philipsen)
[/td]Somewhere between the CBD and the CSD Denver just completed the rebuild of its 16th Street open air shopping mall, originally designed by Ian Pei. The pedestrian mall connects the government district and the tremendously successful Union Station TOD with two large transit nodes on the ends.
[td]
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Denver refurbished 16th Street Mall
[/td]Atlanta, also a city with an ailing downtown, is also working hard on investments that aim to reconnect the isolated CBD. By covering a small portion of a sunken freeway with a park on top (the Stitch) Atlanta Downtown hopes for a surge of affordable housing along both sides stitching downtown to the disinvested neighborhoods to the northeast. So far, this project exists only on paper.
By contrast, the construction of the 6 million square foot, $5 bn mixed-use development Centennial Yards over 50 acres of already partially decked railroad tracks (the Gulch) to revive its ailing southern part of downtown is well underway. This new downtown adjacent area will create a connection to the State Farm Arena and Mercedes Benz stadium. Per investor CIM's managing director Brian McGowan there is no sense that the new development would take downtown's butter off the bread, a frequent notion of critics who see urban development as a zero sum game.
Next door to Centennial Yards a Tech Village is in the making which revives the oldest historic core (SoDo) with 25 projects going on all at once. Especially the South Downtown project, fueled by the wealthy patron David Cummings who wants to give local start-ups a home in village type of setting. His concept looks a bit like a "social district". Already the website claims that the Atlanta Tech Village is ...the 4th largest tech space in the U.S. with deep connections to Atlanta’s business and investment community."
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Downtown Baltimore: No enough feet on the ground
(Photo: Philipsen)
[/td](Photo: Philipsen)
Still, there are lessons for the transformations of a downtown. Many downtowns are choked and isolated by multi-lane high capacity streets that were the late result of Eisenhower's Interstate plans and overly destructive urban renewal plans. Dallas built a successful deck, Rochester filled a section of its inner beltway, Boston famously built the ditch and Seattle buried its elevated freeway.
To change the DNA of the old financial district from 9-5 office towers to a 24/7 "social district" neighborhood will take more than stitching across barriers to the surrounding areas, more than plans, more than adaptive reuse that brings tCIhousands residents into what used to be a sterile office district. There will still be too few feet on the ground. The new social district will even take more than bringing visitors to conventions, or events or tourists to see architectural attractions.
[td]
[/td]
[td]
Centennial Yards masterplan (CIM)
[/td]More than anything, it takes that these various elements of revival work in synergy, that there are clear priorities set and investments are made in a strategic, intentional and systematic manner. The plans need to be outcome centered and result in key downtown routes to be free of large vacant dilapidated buildings or vacant lots that are dreadful or even scary to pass.
Baltimore's new Planning Director and now Housing Commissioner Tim Keane who came from leading the planning department of Atlanta likes to stress design and urban form as a driver for planning. He says, "a whole bunch of plans don't make a city", unless they all aim for the same well defined objective. (He applied those principles to Atlanta's comprehensive plan).
Downtown Rise plan is Baltimore’s case in point of a well-intentioned plan that lacks focus, clear priorities, or a well defined outcome. The plan is mostly focused on better streetscapes and more what planners came to call “walkability”. This is laudable, but the document not only treats all streets the same instead of delineating the most important pedestrian routes. Streetscaping will not make downtown less deserted or revert the giant tax losses. The former Mechanic Theater lot right at the heart of downtown and adjacent to a subway stop should be a high priority.
[td]
[/td]
[td]
Not much left of the Superblock
(Photo Philipsen)
[/td](Photo Philipsen)
Nothing will bring the vitality back that downtowns used to have when the offices were filled and shopping happened here and not in malls or online. The idea of a "Social District" may provide an answer, serving new residents and visitors alike. Living, working, shopping, entertaining and visiting are needed. People in the street beget more people. So far, attractions bring people in for shows, games and events and leave right afterwards. For them to stay downtown needs more than electronic billboards. It needs viable, lively and attractive "third places". The privatization of Baltimore's existing HarborPlace "third space" is the opposite of making parts of the private Denver Pavilions public.
All improvements have to work seamlessly together. Baltimore has also a new CEO of the economic development agency BDC. He is revamping the agency to one that leads instead of reacts. this is a good goal. As the CEO of Baltimore's Downtown Partnership says in her 2025 report:
Design anticipates a physical outcome, imagines what is possible and creates a path for getting there. It is, in short what downtowns need.
Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
Related articles on this blog: