Bard Building is nearly gone after five months of demolition

After five months of demolition activity, the Bard Building on Lombard Street is little more than a hole in the ground.

A contractor for the Baltimore City Community College, the property owner, began razing the five-story building at 600 East Lombard Street in late December and has been chipping away to the point that it’s now almost completely gone. 

Once the 1.1-acre site is cleared, the college plans to create a green space that will be a temporary use while officials come up with a long-term plan for the property. 

The Bard Building opened in 1976 as part of a satellite campus for the community college, whose main campus is at 2901 Liberty Heights Ave. A smaller companion structure, the two-story William V. Lockwood building, was razed in the 1990s and has been replaced by an office and retail development not affiliated with the college. 

Designed by noted modernist Anthony Lumsden and named after the college’s founder and first president, Harry Bard, the Bard Building contained classrooms, a library, a fashion design studio, student lounge and faculty offices. In recent years the college has concentrated its programs in West Baltimore and it closed the Bard Building in 2009. Fenced off and in poor condition, the shuttered building came to be seen by many as an eyesore and safety hazard that should come down. 

The college has explored the idea of maintaining a downtown presence, possibly by building a new mixed-use structure in partnership with a private developer, but a replacement project hasn’t materialized. Officials say the property remains a potential site for future development. 

Last summer, Maryland’s Board of Public Works approved a request to spend $4.2 million to raze the building and create a green space to give college leaders time to come up with a new vision for the property. 

Plans approved by the spending board call for the site to be graded and landscaped as a large open lawn, with shade trees along Lombard and Water streets and Market Place. Existing sidewalks will be restored and lighting will be provided for public safety. Berg Corporation is the demolition contractor and Floura Teeter is the landscape architect. The green space is expected to be completed by the end of the year.