# Charles Center & One Charles Center

Cato Collection, Koch Press Free Library

Lexington and Charles Streets, West, 1924.

Artist: Pollinger, Herbert, 1878-1961.

This 1924 print looking west on Lexington Street shows the Baltimore Gas & Electric building without its modern addition. To the right of the image is the Fidelity and Deposit Building. This area today is the northern part of Charles Center, and is closed to vehicular traffic.

The 14-block Charles Center project, begun in 1958, was the first piece of Baltimore's nationally recognized downtown Renaissance. The 33-acre project was strategically placed between the financial district on the east and

the retail district on the west. The new development consisted of office buildings, apartments, retail space, a hotel, a theater and parking facilities. Four older structures in the Charles Center area have remained, the Lord Baltimore Hotel (1928), the Baltimore Gas and Electric Building (1916), the Fidelity Building (1894) and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Building (1905).

The centerpiece of the development was One Charles Center. This 23-story aluminum-and-glass International Style office building constructed in 1962 was designed by Mies van der Rohe. The building had a pioneering role in the introduction of the International Style of Modernism to Baltimore.

The Baltimore City Fair was first held on the plaza in Charles Center in the 1970s to celebrate Baltimore's many ethnic neighborhoods.

Baltimore City Heritage Area

Sheila Dixon, Mayor

National Register of Historic Places

The 1958 plan (top) retained five existing buildings and proposed a series of new buildings around the edge of the 33-acre tract—all but two of them office buildings. An updated plan (bottom) shows smaller-scaled, more varied structures. Buildings constructed to date (aerial photo opposite) include: A. Sun Life Building (Warren Peterson, architect); B. Federal Building (Fisher, Nes & Campbell); C. Mechanic Theater (John Johansen); D. Mercantile Trust Building (Peterson & Brickbauer), now nearing completion; E. Statler Hilton Hotel (William Tabler); F. Vermont Federal Bank (Edward Q. Rogers); G. Hamburger's clothing store (Tyler, Ketcham & Myers); H. One Charles Center (Mies van der Rohe); I. Gas & Electric Building Addition (Fisher, Nes & Campbell); J. Apartment complex (Conklin & Rossant). Future projects already designed include: K. office building (Rogers, Taliaferro, Kostritsky, Lamb); L. second half of hotel. Two other future structures (M. and N.) are subject to change. Since Charles Center was started, three major buildings have gone up around its perimeter: O. Arlington-Federal Building (Vlastimil Koubek); P. Blaustein Building (Vincent Kling); Q. Civic Center Arena (A. G. Odell). Aerial photograph by M. E. Warren.

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