Seeking to attract more people to the Inner Harbor, the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore is looking for a team to redesign Rash Field, the open parkland on the south shore between the Maryland Science Center and Rusty Scupper restaurant.

The Waterfront Partnership has set September 25 as the deadline for design teams to submit their qualifications to be considered for the job of redesigning the area.

Transforming Rash Field, located just north of Federal Hill, is one of the recommendations that came out of “Inner Harbor 2.0,” a master plan for the Baltimore waterfront that was released in 2013.

“We are extremely excited to be moving forward with improvements that will attract more locals to the harbor,” said Laurie Schwartz, president of Waterfront Partnership in a press release today.

“While tourism remains vital to Baltimore’s economy, there’s more we can do to make the harbor more appealing to city residents and families in surrounding neighborhoods. This is an important first step.”

Earlier Plans Stalled

This is not the first time the city has sought experts to redesign Rash Field.

In the 1990s, it held a limited design competition and selected a team headed by Martha Schwartz, who proposed a landscaped area that would look from the air like a giant crab.

More recently, the quasi-public Baltimore Development Corp. hired a team led by Ziger Snead Architects, which designed an underground garage with public spaces on the roof. Those designs never moved ahead to the construction phase.

This time, the Waterfront Partnership is aiming to make the park more usable, attractive and accessible.

After it is selected by an advisory committee, the design team will work with Waterfront Partnership to gather community input through a series of stakeholder and community meetings and observing the current formal and informal uses of the space.

According to the Waterfront Partnership, the final design will include the following uses:

• Beach volleyball. (An earlier attempt to remove volleyball from Rash Field brought howls of protest by players – and the games continued.)
• Outdoor exercise equipment and uses, such as a jogging track.
• Active health and wellness space for organized or informal activities.

Other elements of the plan include removing the berm separating Rash Field from the Inner Harbor promenade, upgrading the South Shore promenade, providing programming space for bocce, ping pong and other activities, and upgrading restrooms.

The Partnership also wants to relocate the Pride of Baltimore Memorial, the Inner Harbor Carousel and the Kawasaki Garden near the science center and would consider “other uses brought forward by the design team, stakeholder meetings or the advisory committee.”

The Inner Harbor 2.0 Master Plan, released by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the Waterfront Partnership and Greater Baltimore Committee, provides a series of recommendations aimed at updating the harbor’s 1970’s-era appearance and increasing the balance between locals and tourists served by the area.

“For four decades, the Inner Harbor has been Baltimore’s thriving center of entertainment and tourism, as well as a pillar of growth for our great city,” said Mayor Rawlings-Blake.

“We want to make sure residents of Baltimore use this great asset of ours. By improving Rash Field we will create more free and low-cost activities for Baltimoreans and our visitors to enjoy,” she added in a statement today.