Ujamaa Cove

An urban farm, then a vacant lot, now a green across from the Commons.

WHERE

Baltimore, MD

SETTING

Neighborhood

PARTNER INSTITUTION

O'Hara Development Partners CDC

Visit

Where it is

2101 Boone St, Baltimore, MD 21218

What happens here

The design restores something the block had lost: children playing outside while neighbors keep an eye on them. Raised planters on the north side are for community use.

Find this Sacred Place

Volunteers in yellow shirts posing with the Ujamaa Cove sign on the garden lot

HOW IT CAME TO BE

The lot went quiet, and the block noticed.

The Need

East Baltimore Midway is budding with diversity, its newly renovated and newly built homes drawing people from many professions, particularly the veterans community. The Boone Street Lot, once an urban farm, had contributed to an overall lack of a sense of safety among nearby residents since its abandonment.

The Vision

O'Hara Development Partners secured the site and built a design concept out of the outcomes of several community meetings. Community members took part in design activities at a community day, children included. What they aimed at was resurfacing the block's former capacity for children to play outside while neighbors watch, while retaining elements of the land's agricultural past.

The Transformation

The lot's own history stayed in the ground. A line of fruit trees along the south side remains from its farming days, and a large existing tree was preserved. Two primary entrances, each flanked by trees, now face Boone Street Commons across the road, and meander for several feet through native plantings and lawn before opening onto the central green. Raised planters for community use line the north side. A storage container is set into the southeast corner against a backdrop of native plantings. A rhomboid pathway loops through the whole and unifies it. The work extends the greening O'Hara began at Boone Street Commons directly opposite.

How a Sacred Place comes to be →

WHO TENDS IT