Baltimore Peninsula Rye Street Market

275,000 square feet
2 - 6 stories
Baltimore, Maryland
2023

Comprised of four commercial buildings centered around an intimate urban square, Rye Street Market serves as the public face and heart of the master-planned Baltimore Peninsula District. The mixed-use complex brings together boutique office space, community-focused retail, and a network of activated alleyways—creating a vibrant, civic-oriented anchor within the new waterfront neighborhood.

As part of the broader transformation of Baltimore Peninsula—including the Under Armour campus and Sagamore Spirit Distillery—Rye Street Market reflects a shift toward community-building and urban connectivity. Situated on a former industrial site along the Patapsco River, the project reclaims a historically significant stretch of waterfront, drawing upon the site’s maritime and manufacturing heritage to inform its architecture and approach to the public realm.

The urban design goals for the project reflect a clear vision to create a walkable, mixed-use experience that blends commercial activity with meaningful public space. The site plan centers on a landscaped plaza at the heart of the complex with radiating alleyways between each building, arranged in a pinwheel configuration that promotes movement and moments of discovery. This layered circulation strategy breaks down the scale of the development and enhances its integration with the broader master plan.

For the new buildings, material selections were rooted in contextual research, drawing inspiration from local naval architecture, industrial infrastructure, and historic masonry buildings. The resulting palette—cross-break metal panels, corrugated facades, and warm brick with arched openings—strikes a balance between industrial character and contemporary design, reinforcing the project's identity as both forward-looking and deeply rooted in place.

Construction

MA also designed the lobby spaces in three of the four new buildings. Featured here is one of these refined lobbies, where monolithic light grey marble slabs span the floors and walls, creating a sense of quiet luxury. A sculptural stair made of solid American walnut anchors the space, connecting the ground-floor lobby to the third floor.

Collectively, Rye Street Market’s composition of expressive building forms, activated pedestrian corridors, and lively central square creates a memorable public realm—one that advances the Baltimore Peninsula’s goal of becoming a great neighborhood to live, work, and play.

Morris Adjmi Architects