Design for Distance

During the COVID-19 crisis the City of Baltimore, the Baltimore Development Corporation, and the Neighborhood Design Center created a competition called Design for Distance to inspire entrepreneurial spirit in creating COVID-19 mindful outdoor spaces for neighborhood restaurants and retail establishments. Gensler was selected for their unique design for the Station North Community and Mayson-Dixon team was asked to partner with them in bringing the design to life.

Baltimore Development Corporation and the City of Baltimore's Design for Distancing program was awarded an honorable mention in the Place Design category by the Environmental Design Research Association. The program was an urban design initiative in partnership with the Neighborhood Design Center to help small businesses throughout Baltimore to reopen without compromising public health.‍

Interior Design Magazine selected the Design for Distancing project as a 2021 Best of the Year Awards Finalist in the Outdoor Dining category.

Our construction and project management team worked with the Gensler team on how best to coordinate the community vision for the build-out and then reviewed opportunities to creatively use the limited resources to create a budget that achieved the goal of creating outside seating ensuring restaurants could operate at their original full capacity.

Understanding that this was community project, our supply management team then source the materials locally and negotiated discounts because of the impact on the businesses. As the teams were working they recommended to the City that we work in sync with the 18 different projects sites to order materials in bulk to reduce costs. Our team then coordinated with all of the project teams to deliver supplies and materials all over the City of Baltimore as well as our project site in the Station North neighborhood saving 10% of the supply budget to invest back into each project.

Finally, our team completed the constructed on the platforms, planters, and barriers projects with local Baltimore City residents and volunteers. Immediately, restaurants in these areas began reporting their best sales figures in months, which has allowed them to expand their businesses and keep people with their jobs.

The consulting team coordinated final messaging around the project with the City and local community partners and volunteered their time on the project site. The team also coordinated the Mayor joining the Gensler and Mayson-Dixon project team for a final project dinner at the Station North site.