From the BBJ:
"A bold vision for a 48-story tower at 300 E. Pratt Street will bring the downtown development glory back to Pratt Street, design panelists said on Thursday.
"Thank you for taking this to the level that will give Harbor East and Harbor Point a run for their money," said Pavlina Ilieva, a member of the city's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel. "This is going to dominate the entire skyline."
During its third review of design plans for the site, UDARP finally recommended schematic approval for the mixed-use project at a long-underutilized and highly visible site at the Inner Harbor. The site, located between Commerce and South streets, housed the former Baltimore News-American building. It has been a parking lot for decades.
The building will include 200 hotel rooms, 400 residential units, 10,000 square feet of retail space and a 550-space above-ground parking garage.
Reston, Va.-based developer Comstock Partners had to shrink the project's footprint, sacrificing about 10,000 square feet of retail space, to meet new flood-plain requirements that the building's entrances be 8 feet off the ground in case of flooding during a major storm.
Gregory Luongo, vice president of D.C.-based HKS Architects, said designers strove to respect the history of the Inner Harbor, while creating a modern building that provides a "dynamic and distinctive profile" from every vantage point.
Panelists praised the designers' overhaul of the steps leading to the above-grade building. Panel members had recommended at an earlier meeting that the stairs emphasize "ascending" instead of climbing. Designers made the steps lower, wider and terraced, leaving wide stoops that invite pedestrians to sit and look out on Pratt Street.
Panelists were divided in their opinion of a bright orange fin on the western facade. Most liked the bold orange color and the thin rails reaching high over the top of the building, but others would have preferred the feature to be solid instead of perforated.
Panelist Richard Burns said some aspects of the design, especially the facades aiming to shield the garage from view, were unnecessarily complicated, and the integration of the base of the building with the tall tower component was "troubling."
Larry Bergner of Comstock Partners declined to disclose the estimated price tag for the project, which he said is still a moving target.
Parking lot owner InterPark LLC purchased the site in August 2013 after a redevelopment plan proposed by Urban America LP in 2006 fell apart during the recession."
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Courtesy from BBJ and MasonInquiries!