The Commerce Place Building is a Postmodernist skyscraper designed by RTKL Associates, with Geraldine Pontius as lead architect, and built in 1992 in Baltimore, MD.
Its precise street address is 1 South Street, Baltimore, MD. You can also find it on the map here.
RTKL Associates, with Geraldine Pontius as the lead architect, was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.
That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but at the very least we know that there was one other part involved, that was RTKL Associates in charge of Structural Engineering.
The Commerce Place Building can be categorized as a Postmodernist building.
Postmodernism in architecture emerged in the United States during the late 1960s as a reaction against the starkness of the International Style, which part of the new generation of architects argued was too impersonal, sterile, and disconnected from historical and cultural contexts.
Postmodernism challenged the International Style's austerity by reintroducing historical elements and ornamentation, although this time not as literally as in the Neo-Classic buildings. Instead, they reinterpreted them within the context of modern materials and construction techniques.
Postmodern buildings often feature bold, contrasting colors, unconventional forms, and a playful blend of various architectural elements from different eras and cultures.
In the United States, Postmodernism was not just an aesthetic choice but also a philosophical stance. It represented a democratization of design, where architects sought to create buildings that were accessible and meaningful to a broader range of people, not just designers and intellectuals.
The Commerce Place Building was completed in 1992. By 1992 the Postmodernism movement was experiencing a transition. Critics argued that Postmodernism, initially a rebellious and innovative style, had become formulaic and commercialized, and so the trend started moving away from blending historical styles, irony, and playful ornamentation, and begun to give way to emerging architectural trends concerned with more present matters such as technology, ecology or sustainability.
The Commerce Place Building was kind of late to Postmodernist movement, which in some ways might make it seem older than it really is.The Commerce Place Building reaches an architectural height of 453ft (138m). It has a total of 31 floors.
Ever since opening its doors to the public in 1992, the Commerce Place Building has mainly been used as Commercial space, with other complementary uses such as retail, and parking spaces.
The facade in this case is non-load bearing, which means that it does not serve as a structural element, and therefore the architects had total freedom to work on its design without worrying about the support of the building.
From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features light-colored limestone and blue-tinted glass.
The silhouette features a series of setbacks, culminating in a four-sided truncated pyramid roof.