AIA Baltimore announced Somerset Courts the winner of its 2022 Social Equity award. The Social Equity Design Award recognizes projects that align with the Neighborhood Design Center’s values:

• The more inclusive and community-driven the process, the better the design.
• Healthy places are built with consideration of social justice, environmental sustainability, and the true character of a place and the people who live, work, worship, and do business there.
• Everyone deserves access to good design.
• Well-designed places enhance healthy cultural and democratic life in our neighborhoods.

Built and unbuilt projects submitted by AIA members were judged by a distinguished jury of AIA architects, this year based in East Bay, California.

Located in East Baltimore’s Gay Street Neighborhood, the Somerset Courts renovation transformed townhomes that spent years in decline into a safe, accessible, and active townhome community. Taking down block walls that surrounded the property and reconfiguring units that once faced inward creates inviting street access to the townhomes. Removing four buildings at the interior of the site allowed for the addition of a playground, green space, more secure parking for residents and guests, and a loop for policing. The 75,000-square-foot facility was completed in 2021.