"Start Thinking Small, Baltimore" Design Conversation

From the Beatbots calendar and Urban Palimpsest blog comes the announcement of a design conversation, "Start Thinking Small, Baltimore" at The Wind Up Space on North Avenue in the Station North neighborhood. It's Wednesday, October 1st, 6:30-8:30 PM. "Join architects, designers, artists, activists, planners, and interested citizens to talk about the future of Baltimore's built environment."

"Best Misuse of Taxpayer Funds"

The "New Baltimore Arena" won "Best Misuse of Taxpayer Funds" in the 2008 CityPaper "Best of Baltimore" issue! 

From The Washington Times

Today's Washington Times has a great, concise story by Tim Lemke about Baltimore's plans to build a new arena.

Blast To Play 2008-09 In New League

PressBox has an exclusive story by Kyle Knopp announcing that the Baltimore Blast will play in "the newly formed National Indoor Soccer League." Exact dates were not listed for the "18-game schedule" but the First Mariner Arena will host all Blast home games.

Serena Williams To Play At The Baltimore Arena

When I started this blog I knew I was not going to list every single event held at the Baltimore Arena, but this is different. This year's PNC Tennis Classic, aka Pam Shriver's yearly charity exhibition, is going to include Serena Williams! A quick read from The Examiner and a more detailed story from The Sun. The event will be held Friday, November 21st.

Blast To Play One More Season At The Arena

From September 6th's Baltimore Sun, Kent Baker reports that the Baltimore Blast will defend it's Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) title. The MISL ceased to operate on May 31, 2008 but Mr. Baker reports the league is reforming and quotes Blast general manager Kevin Healey, "The season is shortened a little bit." Their schedule has yet to be announced.

"New Arena, Old Location" Discussion Announced

Save the date! The Baltimore Architecture Foundation has announced its series of free Fall Forums to be held at Johns Hopkins University's Downtown Center (located at 10 N. Charles Street). 

"New Arena, Old Location!" will be held on Wednesday, November 19th from 12 Noon to 1 PM and will be hosted by Kimberly A. Clark, executive vice president of the Baltimore Development Corporation. Here's a printable (PDF) schedule of the entire series.

Transit Hub Considered For New Arena

From the September 1st Baltimore Sun, traffic columnist Michael Dresser reports, "... a group of local transit advocates..." have proposed a "Central Maryland Bus Station below the arena itself". This idea makes sense in a lot of ways: light rail, bus lines, and the subway are all close by. A safe 24-hour transit hub is also a great idea. Baltimore isn't a 24-hour city, but this would do wonders for the safety and security of shift workers, as mentioned in the article.

Dresser admits the need to build "underground passageways" to link the arena with the subway line. New York City's Madison Square Garden and DC's Verizon Center take advantage of numerous subway lines. Newark's new Prudential Center was built a block and half (PDF map) from the rail station, however. Will Baltimore take the bold step and integrate the subway into the new arena or will it cheap out and make you walk a block from the existing Charles Center stop?