Rendering of proposed Sisson East mixed-use development in Remington. Credit: BCT Design Group.
Rendering of proposed Sisson East mixed-use development in Remington. Credit: BCT Design Group.

Seawall Development released updated renderings this week of Sisson East, its proposed mixed-use development in Remington.

The development site is nearly a full city block bounded roughly by Sisson Street on the west, 28th Street on the south, Hampden Avenue on the east and 29th Street on the north.

Plans call for offices, apartments, parking and retail spaces in a combination of new buildings and older structures adapted for new uses. BCT Design Group is the architect and Mahan Rykiel Associates is the landscape architect. 

Preliminary plans were presented to the city’s Urban Design and Architecture Advisory Panel on June 1. The team returned on Thursday with more detailed renderings indicating how the buildings would look and fit together. 

The renderings showed that the apartment building would rise along Hampden Avenue and the office building would be on the 29th Street side of the property. The apartment building would have a metal skin in shades of rust and gray. The design of the office building would recall the many loft buildings in the area, with large windows overlooking the Jones Falls Valley.

The new structures would be more than twice as high as two existing buildings along Sisson Street, the Swirnow Building at 2801 Sisson Street and the Overstock Outlet warehouse at 2811 Sisson Street.

They would be retained and recycled to house restaurants or other commercial tenants, with murals on the exterior and occupiable roofs. In the middle of the block would be a landscaped courtyard framed by retailers, meant to be a new gathering spot for Remington.

Seawall representative Chris Holler told the panel the project has essentially the same elements as it did in the last presentation, including:   

  • About 200 apartments, mostly one-bedroom units and some two-bedroom units, with about 9,000 square feet of amenity space and terraces and one parking space per unit.
  • About 140,000 square feet of office space in a six-level building, with five levels of offices over one level of retail space. There would be one parking space for every 800 square feet of office space.
  • About 50,000 square feet of ground-level retail space, in both the new and recycled buildings.
  • A six-level parking garage with space for about 470 cars and 47 bikes, “wrapped” by the residential and office buildings. The garage would be accessible from both 28th and 29th streets.

Seawall is working on Sisson East with Blank Slate, a minority-owned development company headed by Alex Aaron. Seawall’s previous projects in or near Remington include Remington Row; R House; Union Collective; Miller’s Court and Union Mill.

Ed Gunts is a local freelance writer and the former architecture critic for The Baltimore Sun.