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BOLTON SQUARE COMMONS

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1967–1968, Hugh Newell Jacobson. 200 block of W. Lafayette Ave, 1400 blocks of Jordan and Mason sts.

This welcoming enclave of mid-century modern attached houses was designed as part of a larger city-sponsored redevelopment of the Bolton Hill neighborhood. Bolton Hill had long been known for its fine nineteenth-century brick Italianate and Romanesque Revival row houses. By the 1950s, however, the neighborhood had suffered a long decline with blocks of row houses abandoned. The Baltimore Urban Renewal and Housing Agency demolished several blocks including Jordan and Mason streets, holding a design competition for up-to-date replacement housing. Jacobson’s winning design encompasses thirty-five units with private gardens that center on a common green space. The Bolton Square row houses maintain the scale, varying heights, and red brick facades of the neighborhood’s older row houses yet provide a fresh new face. The minimalist modern facades feature horizontal bands of floor-to-ceiling bays and alternating flat and gabled roofs separated by parapet fire walls. They are arranged in a slightly staggered, arching pattern with green setbacks to the front and walled gardens and the commons to the rear. The result is a private verdant setting within an otherwise harried urban environment. In 1969 Bolton Square received the American Institute of Architects’ coveted Honor Award for Excellence in Architecture.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie
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Data

Timeline

  • 1967

    Built

What's Nearby

Citation

Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie, "BOLTON SQUARE COMMONS", [Baltimore, Maryland], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MD-01-BC97.

Print Source

Buildings of Maryland, Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Catherine C. Lavoie. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2022, 210-210.

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