Project Description
Avalon 555 President is located between three distinctly different and iconic Baltimore neighborhoods – Harbor East to the South, Little Italy to the north, and the Inner Harbor to the West. The building’s unique massing and dynamic skin responds to these different contexts while simultaneously maximizing views and maintaining effective building efficiency and operation.
The prominent Western façade fronting President Street commands unparalleled views to the Inner Harbor. An elegant brick skin, which refers to the masonry grids of Harbor East, is framed by glass towers on the northern and southern ends of the building, terminating the important visual axes of President, Eastern Avenue and Fleet Street. The glass façade is also used to express the three penthouse levels and provide unimpeded views of the historic waterfront neighborhood.
The building mass steps down along Eastern Avenue, culminating in a town-house scale volume that seamlessly transitions the 24-story tower into the smaller fabric of Little Italy. A seven-story garage façade on Albemarle Street references the scale of the nearby historic warehouse buildings and lower podium scale of Harbor East. The top amenity floor is set back from the building edges to create a series of outdoor amenity spaces activated by compatible interior amenity uses.
Active retail plazas anchor both the northern and southern ends of the building, encouraging pedestrian connectivity across Fleet and President streets. Carefully located ramps and wide, welcoming stairs mediate the elevated ground floor level required by flood plain regulations. A long, wood canopy connects the main entry on the northern plaza with a secondary entry to the south, while also celebrating the important President Street façade and defining the lobby program. A similar canopy marks a third entry on Albemarle, which is used for the vehicular drop-offs and pick-ups that the heavy traffic on the other three streets precludes.