Preservation: The owners of Samester Apartments are honored for their $1.5 million restoration of the Art Deco complex on Park Heights Avenue, one of several projects recognized by Baltimore Heritage.
| Sun, 6/22/2000 |
| By Edward Gunts |
| The Baltimore Sun, Staff Writer |
When new owners purchased the Samester Apartments in Northwest Baltimore in 1998, they could have wiped away many of the Art Deco touches that make the building so unusual.
Instead, after consulting with their architects, the owners restored details that help distinguish the 1939 apartment complex from many others up and down Park Heights Avenue, such as bull-nose columns and glass-block windows.
Today, it stands as the most fully developed (and restored) Art Deco-style garden apartment complex in Baltimore.
"They had an Art Deco gem, and they realized it," said Klaus Philipsen of ArchPlan Inc., the architect responsible for the restoration.
"We helped them by getting it designated a national landmark and planning a restoration that brought it back to life while strengthening its Art Deco character," he said.
Named for Sam and Ester Hammerman, the parents of builder Samuel Hammerman, the 74-unit Samester Apartments at 7000 Park Heights Ave. is one of six restoration projects that will receive awards next week from Baltimore Heritage, a citywide preservation advocacy group.
Baltimore Heritage's board gives annual awards to recognize excellence in restoration, renovation, rehabilitation or adaptive reuse of individual structures or groups of buildings. The award for the $1.5 million Samester Apartments restoration will be presented to ArchPlan and the owner of the apartments, an affiliate of Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse.
Gabriel Kroiz, whose grandparents once lived in the building, was the project architect for ArchPlan, and Philipsen was the project director.