(More) Proof that Baltimore is enamored with urban renewal

they filed a landmark nomination for the Mechanic Theater, an excellent example of urban brutalism. See "Theater testing the boundaries of preservation," from the Baltimore Sun.

Baltimore Sun photo of the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre by Doug Kapustin.

From the article:

But when the Mechanic opened on Jan. 16, 1967, it was the cutting-edge showplace, the centerpiece of the fledgling Charles Center renewal zone and Baltimore's best hope of luring people back to the city center they'd abandoned.

The theater was also audaciously modern inside and out - to the delight of some and the disgust of others.Designer John Johansen embraced everything in the Brutalism playbook - the raw, pockmarked concrete, the blocky, angular lines, the almost religious dedication to marry form with function."

Although it's dated now and modernism is passe, [Charles Center] was one of the better designed and more successful downtown rehabilitation projects nationwide, and the theater building was an important part," says James D. Dilts, co-author of A Guide to Baltimore Architecture. "It's one of the better buildings of the last half-century."