During a sunny summer beach trip to Ocean City in 1989, Joan Davidson and Kathy Whiting of the Rouse Company—the real estate development and management firm responsible for building Harborplace in 1980—stumbled into a sand-sculpting competition.
Thrilled with the ingenuity that they witnessed, the duo returned with plans to start their own in Baltimore. With help from the Baltimore Architecture Foundation, they quickly organized the inaugural City Sand competition—an event that invited teams of local architects to build their most impressive structures, using only mason sand, tools, and water, in hopes of winning the coveted “Golden Shovel.”
The contest was historically held every June, up until 2012, when Ashkenazy Acquisitions Corp. purchased the complex from its previous owner, General Growth Properties. Now, after a decade-plus hiatus, Harborplace’s new owner MCB Real Estate is excited to bring the competition back to the Inner Harbor Amphitheater on Saturday, June 24 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The rain-or-shine event will also offer live music and food for purchase by local vendors.
“In the process of acquiring Harborplace, our one big focus has been trying to reactivate the property and bring some great events to the amphitheater,” says John Pezzulla, who co-founded City Sand with the Rouse Company in 1989, and now works with MCB. “Being so well-received for so many years, we thought City Sand was the perfect event to bring back.”
In keeping with the ongoing conversations of what will become of the twin pavilions as MCB Real Estate begins its revitalization efforts, the theme of this year’s competition is “Reimagining Harborplace –The Future of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.” MCB’s managing partner and co-founder David Bramble told The Baltimore Banner earlier this year that the firm will start its years-long redesign by “engaging the community through online and in-person listening projects.” The hope is that the competition will serve as yet another way to solicit input.
“People have a lot of memories of the Harbor in the past,” says Baltimore Architecture Foundation’s executive director Lauren Hill, who will serve as a judge alongside Bramble. “Now that things are going to be changing, it’s really a good time to think about the different possibilities of what could happen, and to re-engage with people who are already involved in reimagining public spaces.”
Among those competing is Niki Kreynus, an architectural designer with BCT Design Group. When pondering the theme, she says her team immediately prioritized the visitor experience. In their first year in 1980, Harborplace’s mini-malls helped to draw 21 million people to the Inner Harbor. Developers hope that the new design of what Bramble calls the city’s “front lawn” and “connective tissue” will once again spark that kind of interest.
“People and community really drove our design intent,” Kreynus teases of her team’s plans, “especially the idea of unity and bringing people together. But we recognize we’re not here to necessarily construct a [formal representation] of what we think our ideal Harborplace would look like, architecturally. So this provides a neat way to think a little bit more abstractly.”
While it remains to be determined whether Saturday’s sandcastles will actually conceptualize in the new Harborplace design, Hill says that she looks forward to witnessing all of the local talent at work.
“It’s not every day that you get to take a material like sand to show people your vision for something,” she says. “I hope City Sand will reenergize not just the architecture community, but the public to think about the possibilities for the future. It’ll take some time for things to get moving, but we’re looking forward to seeing what will actually happen.”