Transform "Highway to Nowhere" into "Walk of History"

There are hundreds of history walks in the world's major cities, but few if any offer the unique potential of the Franklin-Mulberry Corridor in West Baltimore, home of the infamously obsolete "Highway to Nowhere". Baltimore's rich but sometimes sordid history has been a sensitive topic, but this highway canyon offers a neutral, self-contained blank slate where it can be presented calmly and artistically in its many facets and perspectives, while also serving as a major new development area to uplift the surrounding communities.

The blank canvas for a "Walk of History" inside the "Highway to Nowhere" - looking east from Calhoun Street toward downtown with the vacant Metro West Tower on the horizon. Art and historic artifacts could be placed on the ground, retaining walls and street overpasses, all amid a major new neighborhood development.

Imagine being able to take a long, peaceful conflict-free walk with icons of all facets of Baltimore history presented all around you - in adjacent park spaces, on retaining walls and on street bridges overhead - all in a gleaming new neighborhood representing a fresh urban beginning.

It is now clear that the 1.4 mile "Highway to Nowhere" is not needed. It has repeatedly been closed for months at a time for routine reasons without any significant traffic impacts. It's huge swath of demolition back in the 1960s and '70s was like a dagger through the heart of the adjacent mostly black neighborhoods from which they've never recovered. The highway sits in a wide ditch, fully separated from the street grade above, providing a continuously conflict-free environment, but could still enable connections with the communities above.

A blank canvas as a context for art

The entire City of Baltimore is essentially a history museum, but if anything, there is too much complex and contradictory context to allow statues and art to adequately present it. This appeared to be the case when Mayor Pugh recently ordered the immediate removal of four controversial Civil War statues right after violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. Statues of even earlier historic icons Christopher Columbus and Francis Scott Key have been even more recently vandalized, making it clear that the citizens of Baltimore have an uneasy relationship with their own history.

Statue of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson
 prior to its removal from Wyman Park

  The four Civil War statues are now in a secret storage location while the City and the Maryland Historic Trust try to find them a new home where they can fit in. The search has gone to venues as diverse and wide-ranging as the Chancellorsville Civil War battlefield where the Confederate army was victorious, all the way to Baltimore's own Reginald Lewis Museum of African-American History and Culture. So far, for many practical reasons there have been no takers. However, the Trust contends that the City is legally obliged to maintain and relocate the statues to a suitable site, since it dismantled them.

The apparent thinking is that the possible contexts for presenting the historical statues, ranging all the way from a Confederate battleground symbolizing black slavery to a black commemorative museum, is less important than that it be a well-controlled context. Explanatory plaques are apparently not enough. But unlike urban streets and parks, museums and battlefields are carefully controlled environments.

Museums have walls and are specifically designed for the presentation of history, in all its facets for better or worse. The "Highway to Nowhere" corridor also has walls. And so it can also be specifically redesigned for the presentation of history.

And of course, the history it presents would go far beyond statues of Confederate Generals and Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, author of the Dred Scott decision which provoked the Civil War and much pain and strife afterward. The history would include the full range of hope, aspirations, beauty, the good and the bad. One topic of particular interest would be the history of the highway corridor itself, and how the black neighborhoods in and around it were destroyed in the 1960s and 1970s to build the highway.

Peter Tocco's vision for the "Highway to Nowhere" with development on the north (left) side just south of Franklin Street, and the Red Line and nearly a mile of continuous blank mural space on the retaining wall to the south (right).

Making the "Walk of History" a living place

Meanwhile, it is important that this "Walk of History" be a living place. It should become a real community again with housing, jobs and other urban development. This is essential from a basic urban planning standpoint, because the "Highway to Nowhere" corridor is now what is known as a "border vacuum", which prevents rather than encourages urban life around it and which a sprawling museum alone would be unable to remedy. It's also necessary from an economic development standpoint, because the area needs to nurture new growth.

This new community would essentially be an arts and culture district, which is now a proven strategy for urban development as demonstrated by Baltimore's Station North neighborhood. The residents who would be attracted to live here would be those who want to live amid the diverse cultural influences of a "Walk of History". And at the same time, they would monitor the living museum's evolution to make sure it remains something that people can live with. The artistically inclined residents would hopefully contribute suitable artworks and artifacts to the history walk.

Nearby areas can also lend support and reap the benefits. The downtown University of Maryland just south along Martin Luther King Boulevard can add a higher educational dimension. The massive Metro West office complex which straddles the east downtown end of the highway and was recently vacated by the Social Security Administration can add new jobs. The pristine Heritage Crossing neighborhood can add a stable middle-class element, while the historic Lafayette Square and Franklin Square neighborhoods can add architectural distinction. The MARC commuter rail station at the west end is slated to be totally rebuilt as part of the recent Amtrak tunnel plan. And a viable plan for the light rail line through the corridor (proposed since the highway was first planned in the 1960s) still needs to be developed, which should have been a whole lot less difficult than the Maryland Transit Administration and the City have made it up until now.

Marc Szarkowski's vision for the "Highway to Nowhere" with the MTA's engineered Red Line alignment in the center and development on both sides.There's not much room for art in this block with the Harlem Park light rail station, but there would be more room elsewhere.

 

"The Mural Mile" (or a two sided street)

Several years ago, I was able to convince two designers to prepare visions for how development in this corridor could look, but a "Walk of History" would add a new dimension. In Peter Tocco's vision, we kept the existing south retaining wall totally exposed, along side the light rail Red Line and a two lane "mini-freeway" (with more than enough capacity to accommodate all the traffic now using the existing six lanes). In Marc Szarkowski's vision, both retaining walls would be largely demolished and replaced by development that would envelop the Red Line on the alignment engineered by the MTA in the middle.

With a "Walk of History", Peter Tocco's scenario may be more appropriate, because there would be more room for exhibits and artwork, and perhaps most significantly, the entire south wall would be available for murals. It would leave somewhat less room for development, but still a huge amount because the north side is much wider.

The mile mural could be a huge selling point. Imagine artists reacting to that much space, individually and interactively. The murals could cover the entire cultural continuum from art to graffiti, to art pretending to be graffiti, to graffiti pretending to be art. And when the entire mile (actually about 4500 feet) is full and done, they can start all over again, keeping only the best parts.

The traffic lanes and future Red Line locate between the mural and the public would create a "demilitarized zone" to prevent vandalism, except during special events and peak times when the traffic is diverted away. Computer controlled dynamic lighting could also be installed to create a "light show", particularly in the underpasses.

"The Mural Mile" has a nice ring to it. Previously I dubbed it The "Low Line" after New York City's "High Line", which offers some art but mostly sweeping views of the city and a respite from hustle and bustle, whereas in Baltimore it would be a respite from desolation.

Other concepts are certainly possible. The local street included in both visions may not be needed, except for service and security vehicle access, since Franklin and Mulberry Streets would also provide building and parking access. And of course, this local street could simply be designed to be closed to traffic during the most popular viewing times.

Another major feature which should be seriously considered is a performance amphitheater, for which this submerged highway corridor is ideally suited.

Peter Tocco also photoshopped in the world's widest urban waterfall along the retaining wall. (But I'm going to make you click to see it - aha, click bait!)

Part of a six-mile greenway loop

Finally, this "Walk of History" should be considered but one segment of an even larger proposed six mile greenway loop that circles southward to the B&O "First Mile" of American railroading, which is a tragically underappreciated historical resource. With the possible exception of Fort McHenry, it is by far the most genuinely historic area in Baltimore, and much of it is beautiful and bucolic as well. This loop would also share the existing Gwynns Falls Greenway which travels under Frederick Avenue, which was the origination of the historic National Road that first opened America to the wild west.

Until now and throughout the fifteen years of intense planning for the light rail Red Line, the City has steadfastly maintained that the "Highway to Nowhere" should be retained. But all the evidence is precisely the opposite. The future of West Baltimore depends on replacing the obsolete highway with new development which would present West Baltimore amid its historic heritage. It's time to quit ignoring this.