In support of the “Reconnect Communities” program initiated by the City of Baltimore and supported by the Biden Administration, Morgan State University students have been rethinking the Highway to Nowhere (H2NOW): a six-lane stretch of a highway that was never completed even after it displaced the, predominantly Black, residents of West Baltimore.

Funding from the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act is now being directed to removing the detritus of the highway and rebuilding the community in the region. Architecture students from Morgan State University conducted a project in which they were asked to provide a new, positive perspective on this vast and abused area of Baltimore by providing scenarios of sustainability. This event will showcase three exceptional student proposals and an inside look at the students’ design process along with comments from Baltimore City Planners Martin French and Renata Southard.

It will also attempt to draw conclusions: in a sincere effort to make this urban wasteland a better place and remedy the damage that has been done, students of Morgan State University have drawn upon a pedagogy of critical awareness to building with and for communities. It is our hope that the Biden administration will draw on these ideas to address the racialization of America’s urban geographies.

* This event will be held virtually on the EDC platform. Please sign up to attend.

Program

11.30 am Introduction - Cristina Murphy

11.35 am The Highway to Nowhere - Martin French

12.00 pm Discussion with Martin French - Open

12.10 pm Project Presentation: Urban Valley - Austin Tucker

12.20 pm Project Presentation: The Red Corridor - Uyiosa Aimufua

12.30 pm Project Presentation: The One Way - Tyriq Charleus

12.40 pm Conclusions - Renata Southard and Samia Kitchner