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2009
CAM in the News:
CAM moves up to Suite 300.CAM completes the renovation of Dunbar High School
09/1/09 Baltimore Sun- Dunbar opens with complete new look 2-year renovation cost $28 million
08/21/09 WBAL- Dunbar Gets Tech-Savvy School Upgrades School Set To Open Aug. 31
06/19/09 Catholic Review
Munafo cherishes father’s lessons, supports Catholic Charities
2008
On October 23, 2008 ground will be broken for the newest addition to the Harford County Detention Center. Years ago CAM Construction had completed an award winning major addition and renovation to the occupied medium security facility and will now commence work on this newest project at the site. The nearly 85,000 sq. ft. addition which is five stories high will provide additional housing units, inmate intake/outtake areas, offices, treatment areas and a visitors center, while the single story addition will provide new space to the administrative wing. CAM was selected among a group of pre-qualified bidders as the construction firm to work at this site. As it had during CAM’s first project at this site, the Detention Center will remain fully occupied and operational throughout the construction project.
Church moving to new home (CAM Construction Project)
Uplands renovation prompts New Psalmist Baptist to relocate
Kerry Brandt (center) and Gregory Snowden (right), members of the New Psalmist Baptist Church honor guard, stand in prayer during a groundbreaking ceremony for the church. (Sun photo by Kim Hairston / June 7, 2008) By Madison Park | Sun Reporter June 8, 2008
(Full Article Reference)
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.church08jun08,0,7841363.story
Marc Munafo named Chairman of ABC Baltimore
At the February 2nd Annual Winter Gala, ABC Baltimore’s Executive Director Mike Henderson announced that Marc Munafo, President of CAM Construction, had begun his one year term as Chairman of the Chapter. ABC Baltimore, one of the largest chapters of this national organization. ABC Baltimore has over 600 member firms, with a more than 90% member retention, of which more than 75% of the member firms are contractors. Virtually all of the members are engaged in multiple facets of commercial, industrial and institutional construction throughout the Baltimore metropolitan area. Marc has been on the Board of ABC Baltimore for a number of years, has chaired the General Contractors Council, will lead the upcoming Best Practices Award Round Table and recently chaired the ABC Baltimore Leadership Conference. Mr. Henderson agreed that the organization will “continue its strong growth” under Munafo’s leadership.
Martha Elliott named ABC Woman of the Year
At the February 2nd Annual Winter Gala, Martha Elliott, Director of Business Development for CAM, was honored by receiving the ABC Baltimore’s Woman of the Year award for her outstanding contribution and commitment to Leadership, Education and Community Involvement. Selected as the recipient of this award, Elliott stated that it was a “humbling experience” to be chosen as Woman of the Year from all of the qualified candidates associated with ABC Baltimore’s more than 600 members. Elliott was commended for the first Professional Career Day given by Woman in ABC, a chapter committee which she chairs. The career day seminar was the first of its kind sponsored by an ABC chapter and was discussed at the National Convention as an initiative which should be considered by other member chapters. A second professional career day, as well as a technical career day, mock interview day and other events are currently being planned by Women in ABC.
CAM receives multiple awards for two projects
It was recently announced that two CAM projects have been recognized by the ABC Award of Excellence in Construction for 2007. The projects, Our Daily Bread Employment Center and the Highlandtown Elementary Middle School, had both been previously recognized as one of Maryland’s Top 50 Construction Projects by the Daily Record. Our Daily Bread has also received an Honorable Mention in Design from AIA Baltimore and an award of excellence from the Maryland Masonry Institute. Highlandtown Elementary Middle School also received an award of excellence from the Maryland Masonry Institute. CAM has received awards for their construction projects each year since they had become active in Baltimore’s professional construction organizations.
2007
Our Daily Bread Employment Center project wins AIA Award
We are pleased to announce that our recently completed Our Daily Bread Employment Center project has been honored by an Honorable Mention Award for design excellence by the Baltimore Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Indicative of its importance to City, the ground breaking ceremony was attended by then Governor Robert Ehrlich, Cardinal Keeler and three of the four living Mayors of Baltimore. Once completed, the building was dedicated by Governor Martin O’Malley, His Eminence Cardinal Keeler, ODBEC staff and volunteers and perhaps most importantly, graduates from the Christopher’s Place program which is now housed within the new facility.
This three-story, 52,000 square foot building designed by CSD Architects evokes an image of a classic train station and neatly reflects Catholic Charities’ philosophy that life is a journey; a philosophy particularly applicable to the nearly 1,000 people served there every day. The project will receive recognition during the annual Baltimore Architecture Week events sponsored by AIA Baltimore and at the awards ceremony at the former historic Stewarts Department Store on Howard Street.
Soup kitchen becomes a depot for change
Catholic Charities building is a place of transition - offering hope and positive direction for life journeys
By Edward Gunts Sun Architecture Critic Originally published May 20, 2007
The new brick building on the eastern edge of downtown Baltimore looks curiously like a train station, with its arched windows and overhanging roofline. But trains will never stop there. It's home to the Our Daily Bread Employment Center, and it was designed as the starting point for a different sort of journey.
Scheduled to begin full operation June 4 after a dedication Thursday, the $15 million building at 725 Fallsway represents an unprecedented attempt by Catholic Charities of Baltimore to fight hunger, unemployment and homelessness. In an uncommon melding, it combines a large soup kitchen with employment programs and affordable, short-term housing.
Though it takes its name from the soup kitchen that it replaces at Cathedral and Franklin streets, the 52,000-square-foot employment center is larger and more complex than its predecessor. Occupying a full city block, it has the potential to be a national model showing a new way for nonprofits to provide services to help poor people help themselves.
The architects' train station imagery is germane to this approach: Just as a railroad terminal can be a starting point for travel, Our Daily Bread is meant to be the point from which poor people can begin their own journeys - up and out of poverty. It's intended to be a place of transition, not a final destination. And like a train station, it will ultimately be judged by how well it helps people get where they want to go.
Combining services
Catholic Charities has long fought hunger, unemployment and homelessness, but its efforts were essentially stand-alone programs. A visitor could go to Our Daily Bread and get a meal, for example, but still not know how to find a job or decent housing.
At the same time, Our Daily Bread was sometimes drawing as many as 1,000 visitors a day. Some civic leaders worried about having such a visible magnet for the poor so close to hotels and tourist attractions. They wanted to see it move farther from downtown, if not disappear altogether.
That concern was resolved when the city, under former Mayor Martin O'Malley, assembled property along the Fallsway to relocate the meals program. The new site had enough land to build more than a soup kitchen. As it turned out, executive director Hal Smith wanted to combine the dining program with other Catholic Charities initiatives to create a one-stop shop of services for the poor, with an emphasis on job training and placement.
"For us, the key was employment," he said. "Until you can earn a living wage and support yourself and your family, you can't build self-esteem."
But what should such a facility look like? That was the challenge for CSD, the local firm designing the building. No other city had created anything like this, so there was no template.
CSD faced an urban design challenge as well. In recent decades, architects have generally striven to create "contextual" buildings that fit in with their surroundings. But the immediate context on the Fallsway was two prisons, a strip club and an elevated highway. The architects saw no point in emulating them.
"We're in a pretty unique neighborhood," said architect Curtis Wilson. "What we wanted to do is stand out from the surroundings."
That decision not to blend in helped give the employment center its look and organization.
Freight and passenger trains once ran through the area, so railroad imagery wasn't such a stretch. And at the employment center, people will congregate under cover before being routed in different directions.
"There will be 1,000 people a day in this building," Wilson said. "It's not unlike a public building such as a train station."
Paths to choose
The main components are the soup kitchen; the Christopher Place Employment Academy, a residential program for formerly homeless men seeking employment and permanent housing; and the Maryland Re-Entry Partnership, which enables formerly incarcerated men to move back into the community. The center also provides case management and other education, referral and emergency services.
CSD created a building whose exterior evokes a train station without being too literal. With its sloping roofs, rounded windows and decorative masonry walls, it could be a cousin to Mount Royal Station a mile away. All that's missing is a clock tower.
Inside, the building has a clear hierarchy of spaces. The first floor contains the dining room and kitchen, a volunteers' lounge, a reception area and offices for the employment academy and other service providers. The second floor houses classrooms, meeting rooms and a computer lab. The third floor contains housing for Christopher Place participants.
The building will work like a giant funnel, with the busy soup kitchen representing the wide end and drawing people to the site, potentially "feeding" the other services.
People will line up for meals by standing outside beneath a metal canopy, as if on a railway boarding platform. They'll be able to look through windows and see people taking classes and otherwise being groomed for jobs - a subtle way of showing what's inside.
The 96-seat dining room is bright and airy, like the one on Cathedral Street. With its high ceiling and large windows, it could be a white-tablecloth restaurant. As with the existing facility, people won't shuffle through a cafeteria line. Instead, they'll be seated at tables and served by volunteers.
The term "soup kitchen" is actually a misnomer, directors say, because the program doesn't offer soup. It provides complete meals, usually casseroles, with a vegetable, bread and dessert. There's even a private "serenity garden," tended by the residents, that gives diners a view besides the adjacent correctional facility.
Dignity and hope
After their meals, diners can head out in one of two directions. One doorway leads to the street. A second leads down a wide corridor to programs ranging from job counseling and computer training to health care and legal aid.
The opening that leads to the programs is larger, as if to suggest that's the route to take. But the choice is up to each diner.
Every area has been designed to treat visitors with respect and dignity. Among the most attractive spaces are third-level apartment-style suites that sleep three or four, some featuring views of the downtown skyline.
One of the chief goals, Smith and Wilson say, was to give poor people attractive surroundings for once in their lives, to show what's possible and what they might aspire to.
In a sense, this is the anti-prison. It shows the clients of Our Daily Bread that there are other ways to live, something more than jails and strip clubs and highways leading out of town.
It sends a promising message to others as well. Ironically, a project that began with the goal of making a resource for the poor less visible to the public ended up making it bigger and more visible than ever - a bastion of hope in the bleakest part of town.
2006
The Daily Record Features Three CAM Construction Projects
“Square Feet” , an annual publication of The Daily Record featuring the Top 50 Construction Projects in Maryland, honored CAM Construction projects for the second year in a row. In the March 2006 edition, the Rombro Condominiums at 22 S. Howard Street was listed as the #1 residential project. The listing highlighted the Top 50 Construction projects completed in the last year, had project values ranging from $297 million to $3 million, for work in both the public and private sectors. CAM’s New Communications Center at Morgan State University ranked as the 16th largest project and CAM’s Baltimore International College Culinary Arts Center ranked as the 49th largest project.
Two CAM Construction Projects Honored at Annual ABC Event
Each year Associated Builders and Contractors recognizes extraordinary projects based upon budget, construction challenges, creativity, positive community impact and outstanding project management based upon references by owners, design professionals and industry peers. Only projects receiving certain point totals based on an objective scoring system, can receive an Award of Excellence. CAM received an Excellence Award for the Design/Build Baltimore International College- Culinary Arts Center project in the renovation category. Our other Award of Excellence was received for the $19 million Perimeter Security and Kitchen Expansion at Patuxent Institute. CAM projects have received Awards of Excellence or Awards of Merit annually since CAM began submitting them for judgment among other Baltimore area construction projects. Gaudreau Inc. was the architect for the Baltimore International College project and Bushey Feight Morin Architects designed the project at Patuxent.
CAM Project Receives Baltimore Heritage Award
Baltimore Heritage annually recognizes construction and development projects that help preserve Baltimore’s history. In 2006, CAM will receive its second Baltimore Heritage Award for the sensitive renovation and restoration of the Rombro Building condominium conversion at 22 South Howard Street. This renovation project helped to save a virtually unoccupied historic Baltimore warehouse building from the fate of its sister building long ago razed to make way for “modernization” of this west side community. All of CAM’s work was completed without interruption to the building’s sole occupant, an existing operational dialysis clinic serving inner City residents.
2005
Three of Four Living Baltimore Mayors unite to break ground on CAM project:
At the September 29, 2005 ground breaking ceremony for the new Our Daily Bread Employment Center on Fallsway in Baltimore, Mayors O’Malley, Schmoke and D’Alesandro joined Governor Ehrlich, Cardinal Keeler and representatives from Catholic Charities to officially start work on this new 52,000 square foot facility to aid Baltimore ’s homeless and financially challenged population. Once completed in approximately 14 months from its start, the new facility shall provide shelter through it’s Christopher Place shelter, training through the St. Jude’s Employment Center , emergency services through the Samaritan Center and more than 250,000 hot meals annually to an average of nearly 700 guests to the new center. Design work was completed by CSD Architects.
Ground is broken for the new Matapeake Middle School:
This new 109,000 square foot middle school is the second phase of the planned campus on Kent Island and will complement the recently completed elementary school. Work will include environmentally conscious geo-thermal heating and cooling systems. CAM was selected to bid the project based upon our extensive experience completing complex school projects and was the low bidder on this highly competitive project. This important project has been designed by Gilbert Architects Inc.
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