Sacred Places
Fello at Port Street
A contemplative space written into a town's waterfront plan.
WHERE
Easton, MD
SETTING
Neighborhood
PARTNER INSTITUTION
Fello
Visit
Where it is
480 Port Street, Easton, MD
What happens here
The Sacred Place serves the Fello at Port Street community and the broader Easton community alike. Residents in the nine apartments above look down on it, and the staff break room directly below has the same view, so the garden is in sight of people all day whether or not they are in it.
HOW IT CAME TO BE
A gateway to the waterfront.
Drag to see the transformation.
01
The Need
Easton's Port Street Small Area Plan set out to make Port Street a vibrant gateway to the town and connect historic Easton to its waterfront. The corridor would sustain many diverse uses, and without deliberate effort a contemplative space would not have been among them.
02
The Vision
Fello supports people with disabilities to live the lives they choose by creating opportunities, promoting respect and equity, and providing access to services. Founded in 1961 by a group of parents of children with disabilities, it now supports thousands of people and their families each year across the full span of a life, from birth through retirement. Two charrettes shaped the design: attendees at the first worked through a design activity, and at the second considered different concepts. The site was chosen as optimal for both the Fello community and Easton's, ensuring the new waterfront plan would carry a contemplative space within it.
03
The Transformation
The building is the first implemented under the Small Area Plan, serving as Fello's Eastern Shore Headquarters and nine apartment units managed by Fello Communities, which offers affordable housing to people with disabilities and low-income families. The Sacred Place sits between a stormwater pond feature and an existing woodland, with a meandering pathway winding through both. Lush native plantings and the shapes of leaves stamped into the pathway itself deepen the sensation of being in a forest. Two medium benches and several boulders sit midway along the path. Metal birds, a nod to the Easton Waterfowl Festival, hover above the native plantings along the street edge.
WHO TENDS IT
Caroline Slobodzian
Firesoul, Fello at Port Street
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Lindsay Robinson
Firesoul, Fello at Port Street
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