Baltimore
About Us
ACE Baltimore’s objective is to give high school young people an opportunity to explore career possibilities in the building professions. The affiliate is a unique partnership of architects, construction managers, engineers, designers, professional organizations, high schools and universities. These community-minded firms and organizations support our program with substantial contributions of time, money and other resources.
In our fourth year, ACE Baltimore has grown to six multi-disciplinary teams with over 70 students from five local schools: Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Carver Vocational–Technical School, Digital Harbor High School, Mergenthaler Vocational–Technical High School and Mount St. Joseph High School.
Forty-one mentors from over 27 Baltimore-based firms meet with these teams weekly after school for construction site tours, visits to college campuses and team projects designed to inform, challenge and actively engage program participants.
Our Team Projects
How would you design the tallest building in Baltimore? (The tallest current building is 529 feet.) That was the task students faced during ACE Baltimore’s 2006-2007 mentoring program. In addition, the students had to consider such factors as the tight urban setting; the surrounding environment with its harbor, historic sites and cultural areas; and the need to serve broad commercial and economic interests. Shape, too, was important, since this structure would clearly become an iconographic symbol of the city.
To arrive at a solution, the students performed programming exercises that helped them determine the building’s function and appearance. Then, they did sketches, pinups and other tasks to simulate and clarify ideas and concepts. While the immediate result was a series of imaginative project solutions, the long-term benefit to team members was a practical understanding of how building industry teams realize their “big” ideas.
Participate in ACE!
If you’d like to experience ACE’s challenges, opportunities and rewards for yourself, just contact one of the ACE leaders listed in the upper right-hand corner of this page.
