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TEAM 1: Gabriel Kroiz and Eliza Steinmeier

An award-winning designer and preservationist, Gabriel Kroiz has more than fifteen years of experience as an architect, builder, and educator. In 2008, Kroiz joined the School of Architecture and Planning at Morgan State University as the undergraduate program director and is working to achieve the school’s missions of providing access to the design professions for African Americans and performing research focused on the sustainable redevelopment of Baltimore and the surrounding region.

Baltimore native Eliza Steinmeier has devoted her professional life to working in, teaching about, and defending the marine environment. After graduating from UCLA School of Law, she worked on Santa Monica Baykeeper’s landmark sewage case against the city of Los Angeles, which has resulted in significant improvements in the health of the Santa Monica Bay. In 2004, Steinmeier founded the Magdalena Baykeeper in Baja California Sur in Mexico. She has been the executive director and waterkeeper for Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper since 2007.

photo by Lisa Van Horn

Divining Baltimore: A Visioning Exercise

History

Central Avenue was not always a concrete mess. It was originally a stream flowing from the Harford Road area to the harbor. However, thanks to “improvements” in flood-control technology, Harford Run, as it was known, was slowly converted into a storm sewer. By the 1840s, the stream section north of Baltimore Street was routed into a pipe and covered over. By 1877, the stretch of the stream from Baltimore to Eastern Avenue was buried. The last stretch was still visible as late as 1896, but soon it too was paved over, never to see the light of day again.


1869 map of Baltimore. Harford Run and the canal are highlighted in blue. No known copyright restrictions

Since the 1990s, much of the industry served by Central Avenue has closed, been redeveloped for different uses, or fallen into a state of disrepair. During this decade, we’ve seen further deterioration of the structural supports covering the storm sewer, and the city is planning to replace the entire corridor.

(For more maps and photos of the site, click HERE.)