Photo of the Copy Cat building, a well-known artist living-and-performance space about a hundred yards from the property to be developed, by flickr user spike55151.
Most of our DS installments are aimed at prospective Baltimoreans of the upper-middle-class variety. Here’s one for all y’all in the service industry. Station North, the city’s designated arts district, is where scores of Baltimore’s artists both present their work and make a living. (The two endeavors rarely coincide.) Soon it may also be where many of them call home.
City Arts (440 E. Oliver St.) in Greenmount West is the name of the planned $15 million apartment and townhouse development specifically designed to house artists who work in the area. At the moment, many artists live (and in some cases perform) in warehouse spaces nearby, but these properties have not been designated or designed as residences, and as the expected trickle of gentrification begins, the current residents may be forced out by rent hikes. City Arts will consist of four stories with nine two-bedroom apartments at roughly $775 and sixty one-bedrooms at $619 to $656, as well as a multipurpose first-floor space provided for artistic use by the residents. Also incorporated into the complex will be thirty-five off-street parking spaces. Key to the project’s plans are financing regulations that will ensure the space remains affordable to artists even as the neighborhood changes. Apparently at the suggestion of various local artists, developers have decided to maintain the exterior appearance of converted lofts––in particular the gaping windows.
The rent, especially for the one-bedrooms, may be a little high for those of us used to the sort of informal (occasionally shady) arrangements whereby young artists find shelter, but simply the notion of designated artist housing is encouraging. We’ll see how it develops. Construction on City Arts is expected to begin later this year.
