Preston Gardens to be Restored as Green Space
JMT, the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore (DPOB), and the City of Baltimore worked together from applying and obtaining grant monies to developing construction documents for improvements totaling more than $6 million that will restore Preston Gardens, an iconic location in the city. Re-establishing this public space by providing for multiple activities and functions is a key component of DPOB’s Open Space Plan for Downtown. A lane of Saint Paul Place will be reconfigured to reduce loading on the historic wall while also creating several pedestrian plazas with new landscaping and paver treatments. The project also includes significant improvements to infrastructure (ADA improvements, storm drains, signals, lighting, and water mains).
JMT is providing construction administration services for the Baltimore City Department of Transportation, following various planning and design, architecture, landscape architecture, surveys and subsurface utility engineering, traffic, water resources, mechanical/electrical/plumbing, GIS, and water/wastewater services. Our structural engineers developed a system to stabilize the retaining wall supporting the western edge of the park, as well as restoring the compromised portions of the wall and the historic stone stairs and railings leading into the lower part of the park. Meanwhile, our environmental scientists and architectural historians were consulted to maintain the site’s historic characteristics; they developed a presentation to the City Architectural Review Board and wrote the technical specifications for the project’s historic preservation elements.
City and state officials, as well as key partner Mercy Hospital, participated with DPOB in a recent press event at Preston Gardens on August 30, 2016. The project is expected to be complete in the fall of 2017.
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