Creating a fitness center inside 10 Light Street’s historic banking hall without covering the original marble floor isn’t possible, according to a representative of the Under Armour Performance Center now under construction inside the former Baltimore Trust Co. building.

The floor simply cannot remain exposed and work well for the fitness center and its members, Nate Costa, the owner of FX Studios, Under Armour’s partner in the venture.

“Not covering it was not an option,”Costa said, referring to the acclaimed floor that will be hidden when the new facility opens in December.

The plan to cover up the floor by Maryland artist Hildreth Meiere has drawn criticism from preservationists who say it is a significant feature of the building and should remain visible, especially because the building’s owner is seeking millions in state and federal tax credits for historic preservation.

City officials say they have no authority to review the design because the building has not been designated a city landmark.

Performance Turf

The floor contains seven large mosaic panels, both figurative and geometrical, inspired by Baltimore’s harbor, industries and transportation.

Current plans call for Meiere’s mosaics to be covered by a “performance turf” marked to look like a football field, with a remnant of the Maryland flag in a simulated end zone.

The turf will cover all seven panels. The only fragment of Meiere’s work that will remain on view is a smaller section of marble, featuring a ship, on a lower level at the Light Street entrance to the building.

The renovation has become so controversial in local preservation circles that the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) used part of its meeting this week to ask the building’s owner, Cary Euwer of Metropolitan Partnership, to provide an update on the project.

The exercise center’s co-owners, Under Armour and FX Studios, did not attend the meeting.

Erin Wendell, UA’s director of global communications, referred questions about the center to Costa, who is the personal trainer of Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank.

Reached yesterday by The Brew, Costa listed three reasons why it’s not possible to leave the marble panels exposed as the floor of the fitness center:

• the panels would need protection from wear and tear from people exercising in the space and from damage in case anything is dropped on the marble or it gets scuffed. “We had to protect it,” Costa said.

• he wants to create an environment that lets people know they are in an Under Armour Performance Center and is in keeping with Under Armour’s “brand.” He noted that his other fitness centers have specially designed floors.

• he needs a surface that isn’t slippery and protects members from harm in case they fall. A marble surface can be slippery when wet, even from perspiration or spilled drinks.

Euwer, the building’s owner, told CHAP that the fitness center floor will consist of three layers – a fiber layer, a foam layer and “carpeting” on top of that.

FX Studios and Under Armour refer to the surface in their marketing materials as “performance turf.” Euwer said the installation will not involve any mastic that might damage the marble mosaic panels.

In Love with the Building

Why did the Under Armour Performance Center want to open a fitness center in a former banking hall in the first place, knowing the floor would have to change?

Costa said that’s because he fell in love with the building and its historic architecture. After seeing the space, he decided it would be the ideal location to open a fitness center in the heart of the city.

“The building kind of speaks for itself,” he said in a phone interview. “I thought it would be perfect.”

Costa said he lives in an 1897 house and has a deep appreciation and respect for good architecture. He said he was initially attracted to the exterior of the Art Deco building, which dates from 1929 and for decades was Baltimore’s tallest building.

He said he became even more excited when he saw the interior and realized it had enough space for everything he wanted to provide.

Perfect for a Fitness Center

He said the building’s former banking space and other retail spaces lay out remarkably well for a fitness center, which will use space on three levels – the main banking floor, a mezzanine level, and a level under the main banking floor where retailers, such as Eddie Jacobs, used to be.

Costa said he likes the idea of juxtaposing the historic “touch points” of the banking space with a state-of-the-art fitness center. He said the fitness center is reusing many features from when the first level was a bank, including former teller stations, gates, grilles, railings and light fixtures.

“You want to keep them and show them off,” he said, “but you also want to make it functional for what we do. Fortunately, most of what we need is wide open space. Matching the feel of a building that was finished in 1929 and making it relevant to this day and age was our biggest challenge.”

During the planning process, Costa said, he asked designers if there was “something clear” that could be put on the mosaic floor, so it would be protected and people could walk on it and still see Meiere’s work.

He said the designers weren’t able to come up with anything like that. He said the colors of the top surface were selected to fit in with the building and also work with Under Armour’s brand.

Costa said his company is working on ways to inform members, customers and visitors about the original floor and other historic features of the building. He said it may take the form of a handout brochure, a pamphlet or maybe even some kind of display or exhibit in the space.

“Nothing is finalized,” he said.” It may be a combination of all of them.”

No City Say

Could the city have prevented this project from moving ahead, knowing it would mean that an important feature of the building would no longer be visible?

Planning Department officials say they had no grounds to prevent such a reuse. They say the fitness center is an acceptable use as far as zoning is concerned for the downtown business district, will create jobs and will draw people downtown or encourage them to stay longer.

They say CHAP does not have authority to review a building that has not been designated a city landmark, so the panel has no formal say about interior or exterior changes.

Collin Ingraham, administrator of preservation financial incentives for the Maryland Historical Trust, said the building is eligible for state tax credits for historic preservation because it is part of a National Register historic district.

But he said the state does not have as much control over buildings that are in a historic district as when the state has an easement on them, as it does with some privately owned commercial properties.

Ingraham said the tax credit program is essentially voluntary on the part of building owners. If an owner wants to change the building in a way that does not comply with the state’s preservation standards, he said, that could jeopardize his or her ability to quality for tax credits, but the state can’t necessarily prevent the change from taking place.

Interior Details Not Reviewed

Ingraham said he has not received any information about proposed changes to the former banking hall to accommodate the fitness center and therefore can’t say whether they might affect the owner’s chances of receiving tax credits.

He said the state typically does not review interior details that do not involve permanent changes to an interior, such as window treatments, furniture or rugs, but it does want to know about permanent changes to an interior for the purpose of ruling on a tax credit application.

He said it is possible that Euwer will choose not to provide any information at all about the new floor surface, on the grounds that it is a rug that can be removed and not an irreversible change to  the original floor.

Euwer is seeking $3 million in historic preservation tax credits from the state. He told CHAP on Tuesday that he still needs to submit final details to the Maryland Historical Trust about signs related to the fitness center but his tax credit application has essentially been submitted.

Euwer declined to answer questions after the meeting about whether he plans to submit information to the Trust about the floor surface changes. In his presentation to CHAP, he referred to the new floor surface as both “carpeting” and “an area rug.”

Costa said he believes opening an Under Armour Performance Center at 10 Light Street will draw more people into the former banking hall than when it was a bank.

He said he expects to sign up 3,000 to 5,000 members and that many others will patronize areas such as the fitness center’s spa or cafe and that will bring them into the building.

Costa said he intends to do whatever he can to show off the historic interior because that is what drew him to the building and he believes it will be an important part of the visitor experience.

“There’s so much good history” in the building, he said. “You just want to tell people how beautiful it is.”