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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

Walk to the middle of the now-empty lot where the Somerset Court housing project used to stand. Face the harbor, close your eyes, and imagine this:

A large park with walking and biking paths, benches, a playground, and a big pond filled with native grasses that pours into a meandering stream that crosses Orleans Street and runs down the middle of Central Avenue to the harbor, which can be seen from the park. On either side of the beautiful, lush stream, there are paths and benches. It is a respite from the noise of the city and gives and an unparalleled view of the water. In time, Central Avenue becomes a magnet for local businesses and art installations: a corridor of culture, history, and nature, all wrapped up in one.

Daylighting, exposing, exhuming . . . all of these words describe the activity of removing pavement and restoring a stream to its natural state.


map courtesy of Google Maps


rendering by Gabriel Kroiz