#bmoreag

The Baltimore Agritecture Workshop will be co-organized by Agritecture.com, an online media outlet focused on urban and vertical farming, and by BMoreAg, a newly formed Benefit LLC whose primary objective is to serve the Baltimore community through revitalization, availability of healthy foods, employment at a living minimum wage, career opportunity, education/training and community pride.

BMoreAg is eager to employ as many as possible from within the community, hoping to benefit residents first. “We’re delighted to announce BMoreAg to the Baltimore Community via this workshop. We invite our constituents to join us for this design charrette,” explained Alex Fisher, Co-Founder of BMoreAg, “And we’re thrilled to see what sort of designs they come up with for our future urban agriculture center,” he added.

The teams will converge at Open Works, a maker space in Baltimore, on June 23rd to meet their teams and begin the design sprint. They will continue collaborating until 4pm on June 24th, when the workshop session will end. At that time, the public will be welcome to join for the free presentation session.

The presentation session will welcome Baltimore City Councilman Leon Pinkett III to deliver a keynote speech. After Mr. Pinkett’s keynote, the teams will present to a panel of three noteworthy judges from the Baltimore Community.  

The winning team will be selected based on the feasibility of their urban farm concept, as well as how their concept decreases resource consumption and increases social cohesion. Immediately following the presentation session will be a networking session.

The Agritecture Design Workshop concept first debuted in New York City in December 2014. The Baltimore Agritecture Workshop will be the 9th such workshop in a 9th different city. This short video summarizes the event format.

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After some light networking, the three teams engaged in a crash course of knowledge sharing on different topics related to vertical and urban farming. This session was primarily lead by experts at Blue Planet Consulting and by sponsors Hord Coplan Macht, Urban Pastoral, and Natural Concerns. included topics such as: the need of  urban agriculture in current conditions, a crash course on the economics, and even a talk on the local Church's efforts to realize East Baltimore’s revitalization.of  urban agriculture in current conditions, a crash course on the economics, and even a talk on the local Church's efforts to realize East Baltimore’s revitalization.as: the need of  urban agriculture in current conditions, a crash course on the economics, and even a talk on the local Church's efforts to realize East Baltimore’s revitalization.

VIEW DRONE FOOTAGE OF THE WORKSHOP CANVAS DESIGN SITE HERE

These talks were co-organized by Agritecture and by the event’s gold-level sponsor, BMoreAg. BMore Ag is a Baltimore based benefit LLC that is working to realize a community urban agriculture center in Baltimore. The teams were energized to know that our efforts and ideas at the workshop would contribute to actual plans that have been set in motion.

Yet at the same time, day one was a humbling experience to process so many well-rounded lessons on vertical farming techniques. We were feeling a bit overwhelmed about how we were going to use these insights on the fly for our workshop project.We brainstormed few ideas on how to design our project which is community centric, self sustain, bring Jobs to community and a model to be replicated for other community projects.

Below are Team one Participants:

Lisa Ferretto - Architect & Sustainability Director Esther Kim - Landscape Architecture Student Dan Feingold - Landscape Foreman  Martha Brown - Grower Kevin Stanley - Grower Julie Buisson - Entrepreneur/Horticuturalist  Abdul Samad K - Software Engineer Eyal Li - Student Crystal Forman - City Government & Urban Agriculture Community Organizer Bobby Cunningham - Urban Agriculture Lobbyist

Day Two:

During breakfast on the 2nd day we had one final short educational presentation on the +farm project, which is DIY project for anyone who wants to try on vertical farming techniques. After that wrapped up it was time to apply what we learned on day one during the workshop’s deep design dive.

Necessary facilities were allocated to each team to kick start their work. With Lisa from the architecture firm Hord Coplan Macht leading team one, we divided ourselves into groups to work on different sprints of project deliverables as part of our final presentation.

We first worked on values, our project should be centered and build upon:

1. Healthy food and well-being 2. Education 3. Employment 4. Sustainability 5. Community connection.

Once we finalized our team values, we started analyzing site map provided by organizing our team. Some of our team focused on how to use existing facilities, structures, onsite farm to its full potential before proposing new structures while other groups focusing on what crops to grow, marketing the concept, and formulating the project budget.

As the morning passed, our team’s enthusiasm grew. Our vision was coming together to transform the site into a space where the community can learn, grow and depend on healthy food and better lives. By the end of the allocated time, we had put together all the pieces for final presentation and preparing ourselves for tough competition with other teams.

With all respective dignitaries and judges seated, the teams were ready to pitch in their presentations.  The long day of hustling to prepare the best plan to revitalize and build community in West Baltimore was completed. It was now time for each team to present their pitch with different ideas on how to utilize site space efficiently, which crops to grow and how to make space self-sustain.

Team one presentation was started by Lisa Ferretto explaining site architecture:

Site Design

The “Perlman Place” site design focuses around a center gathering space upon which all other elements radiate out.  Pedestrian connections draw people into this center from Sinclair Lane, E. North Avenue, N. Collington Avenue, and N. Patterson Park Avenue.  Vehicular traffic travels one way north on Perlman Place with on street parking and traffic calming measures at the center. From this center “square,” one will encounter the Welcome Center-  the existing house on the site that has been renovated to include an entry lobby, retail grocer, sharing center, tool library, offices, and support spaces such as storage and restrooms.  The southern wall of this building will have a large mural that brands this new Perlman Place Community Ag Center and will be integrated with a new entry, windows and garage doors opening to an exterior gathering space off of the square with a covered pergola, picnic tables with an outdoor grill.

The new hydroponic farms consist of 2 buildings and total 25,000 square feet.  Photovoltaic (PV) Panels are on the roof and rainwater is collected on the south ends for irrigation of all the farms.  The west hydroponic farm is connected to the renovated house or Welcome Center, while the east hydroponic farm is connected to the new Learning Center. The Learning Center consists of 2 classrooms, one of which opens to an interior teaching kitchen, as well as support spaces include one office, restrooms, and storage.   This new classroom building will be net zero energy and water and the southern wall will have garage doors opening to an outdoor classroom area with an outdoor teaching kitchen.

A Memorial Garden (already in conception on the existing site) is to the east of the “Perlman Place” center and a Playground Garden is to the west – both with relocated fig trees to act as a buffer to the existing alley.  To the southeast of the center, are the Research Farms - 2 trailers that will demonstrate additional alternate farming techniques.  Community Gardens are in their existing location, but enhanced with collected rainwater irrigation and other support services.

The majority of the existing farms of Civic Works Real Food Farms are intended to stay and to be operated in collaboration with the new Perlman Place Community Ag Center.  A geothermal well field under these existing farms can efficiently heat and cool the new Hydroponic Farm buildings and potentially the new infill houses in the surrounding blocks.  The block along N. Collington Avenue is planned to stay residential with renovation of the existing houses as needed and new infill construction is planned to fill in the vacant gaps. Pedestrian connections are planned through the N. Collington Avenue residential block as well as the N. Patterson Park Avenue Real Food Farms block to tie back to the “Perlman Place” center.

Sustainability Considerations

Water – Rainwater Collection, filtration. 

Energy – Solar energy, Geo Thermal.

Circulation – People

Other team members explained different methods proposed to grow different crops, budget necessary to complete project,federal and state tax credits available.

Fresh organic produce grown year-round.

80% of produce is marketed to local markets and restaurants for profit.

20% is distributed to local consumers at a not-for-profit rate through churches, markets, and schools.

Campus education initiatives - green building and alternative farming practices.

Interactive learning activities in farming and cooking, specialized for children. Additional classrooms and outdoor space for community activities.

Long term work opportunities in technical positions

After answering few questions from Judges, we prepare to hear final decision which team presentation was selected, to our surprise Team one collaborative effort was selected for Cities West Baltimore Revitalization Project. We were thrilled and humbled to win the judges nod, but in reality, every participant was a winner. The experience was informative, productive and insightful, cheers to Baltimore.

Giving Back

The final highlight of the event was a very special moment, when a $1,500 check was donated to the Mary Harvin Transformation Center courtesy of M&T Bank. The Mary Harvin Transformation Center is a local community development corporation in Baltimore that supports youth and families with the goal of assisting them in their quest to move towards quality living. It was absolutely delightful to be a part of an Agritecture Workshop that connected, educated, and gave back to the city.

About the Authors:

Abdul Samad K, B.Tech Information Technology,MBA Systems is a Payments and solutions Consultant at Capgemini USA.  He has 10 Years of experience in developing Complex software legacy systems.Volunteer in New York CoderDojo Chapter.

LISA M. FERRETTO, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP is a Sustainability Director, Senior Associate, and Architect at Hord Coplan Macht.  She has over 21 years’ experience and has worked on a variety of project types throughout her career including community planning, housing, and education. She is a frequent lecturer, has volunteered with AIA COTE, the City Repair Project, and Green Building Task Forces. Lisa is a Climate and Green School Leader; SEED and Eco-Charrette Accredited; a MD Green Building Council member, founder of GREEN events | Baltimore, and was recognized as one of Maryland’s 2016 Top 100 Women.