Patapsco Strand
Patapsco Strand
The Middle Branch of the Patapsco, Baltimore, MD
As William Warner described in his Pulitzer Prize winning book Beautiful Swimmers, the soul of Maryland is the Chesapeake—its bounty, its beauty, the hard work and frequent delight of waterfront living.
Baltimoreans live within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, an ecosystem of incredible biodiversity. Long before the Smiths, James, and Ridgelys, the indigenous populations named its rivers— Susquehanna, Patuxent, Potomac, and Patapsco— Baltimore’s River. The edges of these waterways are cultural landscapes—places of settlement, memory, bounty. The Middle Branch of the Patapsco is a record of Baltimore’s past—a history of urbanization and segregation. Centuries of industrialization filled in the Patapsco’s once-broad intertidal zone, destroying habitats and creating barriers to waterfront access for residents.
The Patapsco Strand reintroduces Baltimoreans to their river, while also providing an engine for equity and Maryland’s restoration economy. New streetscapes and trails stitch the waterfront back into Baltimore’s communities. Despite the impacts of development, the Middle Branch is naturally reverting to a shallow, brackish marshland. Sculpting of the waterfront accelerates formation of marshlands, and amplifies the human experience of the river, including expansive views and diverse access to, along, over, and through water.
Eleven shoreline miles of abundant habitat from Masonville to Winans Cove create a unified landscape, shaped into a dynamic zone, where people move fluidly—a blue-green edge to fish, crab, play, and connect. This resilient edge evolves over time with tidal sedimentation and freshwater inputs from the adjacent Falls. The Patapsco Strand is a zone of radically increased biodiversity, recreation and health, adaptable to future environmental change and a contributor to a swimmable, fishable Middle Branch.
“The Land of Pleasant Living” finds its urban expression on Baltimore’s Middle Branch, as a long-overdue green space for nearby neighborhoods and a destination for all Baltimoreans to strengthen their common waterfront heritage.
Project timeline: 2019
Client: Parks & People Foundation
Scope: Design Competition
Project Type: Waterfront | Park
Size: 11 Miles of Shoreline
Partners: Hargreaves Jones (Prime Consultant), Assedo Consulting, Biohabitats, DMW, Living Design Lab, Moffatt & Nichol, Neighborhood Design Center, Toole Design
