A six-story apartment building with 160 residential units for artists is being built on a parking lot in the Station North arts district, according to a plan by the Severn Companies of Annapolis and Cam Construction of Lutherville.
Art House Baltimore is the name of the project that will be built on the block roughly bounded by W. 20.th Street to the north, the 1900 block of Maryland Avenue to the east, W. 19½ Street to the south, and the 1900 block of Howard Street to the west. It is located near the two main axes of Station North, Charles Street and North Avenue.
According to CAM Construction’s website, the estimated cost of the project is $37 million. Preliminary plans were presented to Baltimore’s Urban Design and Architecture Advisory Panel (UDAAP) on Thursday. Architecture by Design and Kimley-Horn are leading the design team.
Spanning a city block, the building consists of five stories of timber-framed residential construction over a concrete base. This building will house a community room, administrative offices, a telecommuting lounge, a fitness center, covered parking, and approximately 1,200 square meters of commercial space that can accommodate artist studios, a makerspace, and a café.
The housing units will consist of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Plans submitted to UDAAP show the apartments in a “figure 8” configuration, with some facing city streets and others facing leafy, open courtyards.
According to a project overview provided by the developers, “all units will be affordable” and will be aimed at people earning between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income, with priority given to artists when renting.
An unusual feature of the financing plan, the developers say, is that the building will be divided into two different ownership units, allowing the team to take advantage of a combination of low-income tax breaks of four and nine percent through a “dual financing structure.”
In addition, Art House was the only project in the city of Baltimore to be selected for funding in the last round of applications overseen by the Community Development Administration of the state housing authority.
