http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/c5c71/ [/URL]

The best approach is from the north. Unfortunately several of Towson's tall buildings are located in low-elevation areas and from a distance are hidden and several others are hidden away on the TU campus in a dell, but for what was a suburban place with steam trains 50 years ago, it has gotten pretty cosmopolitan.

Towson HIgh Rises
The Ridgely 28 Floors 330 Ft Tall
Towson Towers 28 Floors 310 Ft tall
Hampton Plaza 25 Floors 275 FtTall
Tabco Towers 23 Floors 250 Ft Tall
EdenWald 21 Floors 240 FT Tall
Berkshire Towers 18 Floors
Investment Tower 15 Floors
Horizon House 15 floors
TU Aparmtent Tower 15
Dulany Towers 15
Residential Tower next to the Ridgely 15 FLoors
TU Dorms 14 Floors
TU Dorms 14 Florrs
TU Dorms 14 Floors
TU Dorms 14 Floors
Towson Sheraton 14 Floors
Heights are Aproximate

Cool. :D
I'd like to see a couple more 300 footers, a couple of 400 footers, one 500 footer and one 600 or 700 footer! ;) Wouldn't that be an interesting comparison/contrast to Baltimore! :D ;)

that is a neat looking city...never heard of it before

hmm...seems like a pretty large suburban hub. However, I have never been into the actual town of Towson, and the closest I have been is on I-695. What is the best viewpoint from I-695?

on a clear day you can see towson from Route 2 in Brooklyn, which is south of the Baltimore by about 5 miles or so. Pretty neat.

The Towson Skyline can also be seen all the way from the Key Bridge.

Great pic. Towson has always reminded me of the St. Louis suburb of Clayton...

http://www.aboveallphoto.com/stl/Downtown_Clayton.jpg

http://www.aboveallphoto.com/stl/plaza.jpg

http://www.aboveallphoto.com/stl/claytonsunset.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/22038416.jpg

Towson is a cool city/suburb. I think there are a couple of vantage points where good pics could be taken, but I don't know the street names there(only been in the place a couple of times). The residential structures seem to be the real standouts in the skyline.

on a clear day you can see towson from Route 2 in Brooklyn, which is south of the Baltimore by about 5 miles or so. Pretty neat.

That's right...it first becomes visible at Ritchie Hwy (Rt 2) and 17th Ave. This would be approx 15 miles away as the crow flies. I used to drive from this area to Towson every day!! It was cool to be able to say to visitors "see those buildings on the distant horizon..I work there"!! Most people don't notice it because Baltimore's skyline dominates in the foreground...I'll try to get a pic or two and post them.

I could see more residentil towers for Towson in the future. Hopefully 25 to 30 floors.

The Towson skyline is visible from distant places because it sits at the very top of a large hill. There is nowhere higher anywhere south or east in Maryland and you have to go a few miles north in Baltimore county to get anywhere higher. Because of the hill, the tops of tall buildings in Towson are much higher than any in downtown Baltimore, which is close to sea level. From building tops in Towson you can see the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which is about 40 miles away.

The skyline would actually be more prominent but half of the tall buildings are somewhat below the summit of the hill. Sad to say though, most of the tall buildings in Towson are second rate architecture, generally built without any tiny consideration of overall urban planning or esthetics. The greatest atrocity is the so-called "Investment Building" which sits at the highest point on the hill, is incredibly ugly and mostly empty since their tenants moved out due to numerous "sick building" complaints (the insides of the walls were rampant with mold and fungus). The massively ugly building overlooks a colonial era cemetary that also is the final resting place of Divine (Glenn Milstead), the infamous cross-dresser of early John Waters films.

I grew up in Towson and while it is quite a nice destination, it really could use a good architectural review board and an over all urban plan. Many of the decisions on where to place buildings were based on bribery of public officials, including Spiro Agnew, the deposed vice president of the Nixon era (One of Towson's most well known former residents). The place is also known as one homes of F Scott Fitzgerald, former basketball star Gene Shue, several of Johnny Unitas' busineses, the family that owns Controlled Demolition Inc (the company that carefully blows up big buildings), Black and Decker, the Elaine character from Seinfeld and the new Time front cover olympic hero-to-be swimmer Micheal Phelps.

WOW! Towson has a skyline ? :eek2: I live very close to Towson, and I have never noticed the skyline before.... but again, I live in two places, in Europe and here, so I guess I'm used to more impressive architecture... but isn't one of the best views on Joppa road and York road, near where the mall is? it's the view you get when you drive away from the mall...

WOW! Towson has a skyline ? :eek2: I live very close to Towson, and I have never noticed the skyline before.... but again, I live in two places, in Europe and here, so I guess I'm used to more impressive architecture... but isn't one of the best views on Joppa road and York road, near where the mall is? it's the view you get when you drive away from the mall...

I wouldn't call it a great skyline, but if you look south from out York road and form a few other vantage points, it's prominent compared to the usual suburban houses and low flat office buildings. The unfortunate thing is that Towson has been the recipient of some of the worst architecture I have seen. Some buildings are downright strange (that awful 28 storey condo on Allegheny Ave) and some seem to have derived their inspiration from Stalinist workers housing (the 4 high-rise dorms on the Towson Univ campus).

The badness reached its zenith in the public library. That "brutalist" structure has as its main entrance, a windowless steel door on the third floor of a parking garage. The street level entrance requires you to take 3 laps around a helical concrete ramp and the only windows are hidden so that you can't see out of them. Then there' s the "Investment Building", an ugly monster that is so mold infested that its tenants moved out and sued the owner. Fortunately gems such as the old ante-bellum courthouse, the old Towson University buildings and the Shepard-Pratt Hospital are still there and soften the general environment. If you could erase the buildings of the 60's and 70's Towson would be a more attractive place.

http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?t=2&s=12&x=452&y=5452&z=18&w=2

It appears that towson is at elevation 400+/- which means the tops of the buildings are at about elevation 700, taller than the DT buildings.

I lived in towson when I first moved to baltimore, which will be 10 years ago on September 19. I worked in towson at whiting turner at hampton plaza, a hideous round building.

The architecture in towson is horrid. There is one tall building that looks like the developer ran out of money 3/4 of the way through, then someone else bought it, hired a new architect and slapped an even uglier last 1/4 of the building on top. So ugly. But, it is a neat urban suburb.

http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?t=2&s=12&x=452&y=5452&z=18&w=2

It appears that towson is at elevation 400+/- which means the tops of the buildings are at about elevation 700, taller than the DT buildings.

I lived in towson when I first moved to baltimore, which will be 10 years ago on September 19. I worked in towson at whiting turner at hampton plaza, a hideous round building.

The architecture in towson is horrid. There is one tall building that looks like the developer ran out of money 3/4 of the way through, then someone else bought it, hired a new architect and slapped an even uglier last 1/4 of the building on top. So ugly. But, it is a neat urban suburb.

The web site you link at top has a seriously antique map. Having an interests in local history, I see "Towson State Teachers College" which changed its name back in the mid sixties. Also the "Kelso Home" was an orphange that became a YMCA about 1960 and the Eudowoon Sanitorium, a tuberculosis hospital that closed in the 1950s. I wonder where they got this.

Some (but not all) Towson buildings are almost a textbook of bad building. My guess is that the building with the cap you refer to is the "Penthouse" condo. It not only is ugly (really ugly) but it's placement in the town is totally out of context, a awful monster towering over smaller old buildings. Towson has improved somewhat in recent years though and now has a thriving cluster of ethnic restaurants, funky stores, a good music venue, lots of foot traffic and a general vibrancy that is a refreshing contrast to the usual big box suburban parking lot centered junk that you see in most so-called communities. The presence of 17,000 Towson Univ and Goucher college students and several large new residential developments adds a lot of activity to the area so the York road corridor is busy almost all the time. Maybe as time passes, the aging ugly buildings will get updated or at least will mix in with the better quality of recent development. Supposedly there is a large condo development about to get underway right in the center of town that will put even more people on the streets.

I've been in that library when I was really young.... I think I withdrew my first book from a public library there.... haven't been there in ages, as I don't go anymore, but now that I think about it, you're right about the door, and it looks more like the outside of a stadium than a library, but the concrete walkway could be worse...

I've been in that library when I was really young.... I think I withdrew my first book from a public library there.... haven't been there in ages, as I don't go anymore, but now that I think about it, you're right about the door, and it looks more like the outside of a stadium than a library, but the concrete walkway could be worse...

It's a very nice library once you get in there, but the way the building was built, it is as though they thought that it needed to be fortress in order to defend against what's out on the street. From the street there is just a blank concrete wall with little windows that look like medieval arrow slits. It just baffles me to think of designing or building something like that. I wonder if anybody ever looked at the drawings and said, "does this look good?". Probably not.

Hey, in case you're wondering, Emporis.com updated the Towson page and there are a few pages full of Towson pics. Check it out!

http://www.emporis.com/en/il/pc/?id=101986&aid=3&sro=1

What has been the tallest proposed building for Towson? Are any of the towers in Towson at or over 300 ft. tall?

I believe at least two buildings in Towson are over 300 ft. The ridgely and The Penthouse. The Ridgley is 29 floors about 330 ft and the PentHouse is 28 floors and about 300 ft.

cool. thanks.

I believe at least two buildings in Towson are over 300 ft. The ridgely and The Penthouse. The Ridgley is 29 floors about 330 ft and the PentHouse is 28 floors and about 300 ft.

There doesn't seem to be much of an inclination to build real tall in Towson in recent years. The tall buildings mainly date to the 70's. The center of Towson is pretty small, with narrow streets and no transit to speak of. You can find pictures of Towson with the same streets but with horses tied up in front of general stores and livery stables in the 19th century; it hasn't grown in size since then and just doesn't have much space to. It really couldn't bear much more traffic than it has now. The biggest thing proposed right now seems to be a promising condo development behind the Recher Theater on a surface parking lot and that looks to be about 4 or 5 floors. Even that will be really squeezed into a small space. Once it is done, however, it will really be a great addition, bringing more affluent people into the center of town. Beyond that, developers will have to start tearing down suburban neighborhoods that are treasured by their residents, against lots of opposition.

As an urbanist I would say that Towson has a good urban intention of it´s suburb, that is, the way nature mixes with the edifications. Because I come from Portugal seeing these american suburbs is always pleasing, besides I personnaly when projecting urban areas of residence have a preference for spaces such as this one. The strong presence of vegetation transmits a refreshing image and various benefits. I enjoy very much the urban image of Towson. As for the quality of the architecture well that´s a problem that exists almost everywhere.

As an urbanist I would say that Towson has a good urban intention of it´s suburb, that is, the way nature mixes with the edifications. Because I come from Portugal seeing these american suburbs is always pleasing, besides I personnaly when projecting urban areas of residence have a preference for spaces such as this one. The strong presence of vegetation transmits a refreshing image and various benefits. I enjoy very much the urban image of Towson. As for the quality of the architecture well that´s a problem that exists almost everywhere.

Towson is saved by its greenery; heaven knows it's not the architecture. It is somewhat special in the bad quality of several of it's most conspicuous buildings. Another thing that Towson needs to do is to address the pedestrian environment. It has a huge mall right at its center but the mall's connection to the rest of the town requires a walker to pass through a labyrinth of parking garages, dodging speeding SUVs darting through the dark concrete recesses. It almost seems deliberate since the mall's designers placed in in a way that it is almost surrounded by garages. Additionally, the roundabout that has expedited traffic has created target practice with slow pedestrians as targets. With some attention to getting around, this could be a really fine small environment. I recently read where Baltimore county is pursuing a trade where they would give Towsontown blvd to the state in a trade for several blocks of York road, which is currently a state road. I hope that they consider improvements to the human environment as well as the speedway.

The urban fabric of Towson for me personally is tied-in with memories as a child. Growing up in Baltimore City, anything outside (further outside of the city) where I grew-up...especially further out towards the suburbs was considered "other-worldly".

While not poor, I did grow up in somewhat humble city surroundings. For me, Towson represented a step-up to a higher class or ideal. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Towson represented "Yuppie" aspirations. As an example, all together Finklestein's seemed to dictate the feel and fashion of Towson in North Baltimore.

While Towson has aged and lost luster like most of the inner-ring Baltimore suburbs, it has in the last few years made a comeback. While Barnes & Noble (or is it Border's!?!), Trader Joe's and "The Mall" have leaped Towson into the leagues of other modern faceless urban centers, I still get a warm and fuzzy feeling thinking back to the days on York Road prior to Towson Commons, where a block of strip stores stood, in which where I could play arcade games in one store front, or walk up the street to Hustlers.

Time moves forward...but in Towson...time in my memory stands still.

The urban fabric of Towson for me personally is tied-in with memories as a child. Growing up in Baltimore City, anything outside (further outside of the city) where I grew-up...especially further out towards the suburbs was considered "other-worldly".

While not poor, I did grow up in somewhat humble city surroundings. For me, Towson represented a step-up to a higher class or ideal. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Towson represented "Yuppie" aspirations. As an example, all together Finklestein's seemed to dictate the feel and fashion of Towson in North Baltimore.

While Towson has aged and lost luster like most of the inner-ring Baltimore suburbs, it has in the last few years made a comeback. While Barnes & Noble (or is it Border's!?!), Trader Joe's and "The Mall" have leaped Towson into the leagues of other modern faceless urban centers, I still get a warm and fuzzy feeling thinking back to the days on York Road prior to Towson Commons, where a block of strip stores stood, in which where I could play arcade games in one store front, or walk up the street to Hustlers.

Time moves forward...but in Towson...time in my memory stands still.

I grew up in Towson and watched as it changed from it's last days as a county seat with rural remnants to the suburb-city it is now. What's amazing to me is how much it has changed but remained recognizable. The buildings have grown but the streets and the old courhouse square are pretty much the same. Even the Barnes and Noble is in the building still reconizable as the old Hutzler's. Inside the center of the humungous mall is still the structure of the old "Towson Plaza" shopping center that I inhabited as a teen. When they built the huge mall they built it around the old building that still is recognizable. I think Towson was most endangered in the 80's when time seemed to have passed it by. Since then however, it has become more appreciated. As burb's further from the city have become more uniform and, in my opinion, less appealing, the varied styles and ages of Towson neighborhoods, the luxurious greenery, closeness to the city and relative ease of commutes have really led to a resurgence. Those residential areas close to the town center really have a nice combination of factors. You can live on a quiet street but only be a few blocks from a bustling commercial center and also be only 20 minutes from downtown Baltimore. A good combination if you ask me. If the place had some decent transit, it would really be a gem.

How is the city name pronounced?

Toe-son or Tau-son

How is the city name pronounced?

Toe-son or Tau-son


It's pronounced "Tau-son" LOL

Thanks. I think I've seen signs on 695 for it, but never thought anything was there.

I never watched Seinfeld much, but wasn't there an episode where the Elaine character got into a fight at a Yankees game cheering too loudly for the Orioles? If I remember correctly, someone (her boss?) saw her on TV and asked her if she was the fan from Baltimore. And she said no, she was from Towson. Or something like that.

Someone once told me that natives pronounce it more like Towzon, though I've not noticed this. (I also had the pleasure to live in the greater Towson metro area for a few years.)

I never watched Seinfeld much, but wasn't there an episode where the Elaine character got into a fight at a Yankees game cheering too loudly for the Orioles? If I remember correctly, someone (her boss?) saw her on TV and asked her if she was the fan from Baltimore. And she said no, she was from Towson. Or something like that.

Someone once told me that natives pronounce it more like Towzon, though I've not noticed this. (I also had the pleasure to live in the greater Towson metro area for a few years.)

Indeed, the Elaine character was from Towson. Other local luminaries include ex-Nixon era VP Spiro Agnew, Divine (Glenn Milstead) of the John Waters movies, and swimmer Micheal Phelps. F Scott Fitzgerald also lived there for a while while Zelda "resided" at Sheppard Pratt hospiital. I have not heard anybody call the place Towzon since I was a kid.

When I go to baltimore, I usually go through Towson to get to Cockeysville. When traveling back to the city my dad takes Dulany Valley Road, and its real hilly there. It gives the best view of Towson. It makes the city looks very urban and dense. Its cool to look at night. By the time you pass seminary rd., the skyline disapears behind the trees.-BTW do anyone have pictures of Towson Commons and the area around it?-oh yeah I also want to see the pics of towson from brooklyn and the key bridge....

When I go to baltimore, I usually go through Towson to get to Cockeysville. When traveling back to the city my dad takes Dulany Valley Road, and its real hilly there. It gives the best view of Towson. It makes the city looks very urban and dense. Its cool to look at night. By the time you pass seminary rd., the skyline disapears behind the trees.-BTW do anyone have pictures of Towson Commons and the area around it?-oh yeah I also want to see the pics of towson from brooklyn and the key bridge....

There is also a good view coming down York Rd from the north, espeically at night, since the main part of town is up on a hill. I don't think you can see much from Brooklyn except the top of a few buildings on a real clear day.

never heard of this place....

I think Towson is nicer than most suburb towns, mosly because it does have its own history, having been the county seat since the 1850's. This has givin it a heritage and history in its buildings that newer places lack.

As noted the 70's Towson buildings are really bad. When they rehabbed the Library a few years ago, it made the exterior look a lot less 'brutalist', although it stil has the bizaar spiral main entrance.

The only tall structure that is planned for Towson is a 15 story addition to Edenwald. According to Balt. Co. planning there is very little new demand for high-rise office space, so don't expect any new office towers anytime soon..

Any nice hotels in Towson?

btw, when I'm in Baltimore I usually stay at the Cross Keys Inn. Nice place.
http://www.baltimore-maryland-hotel-restaurant-catering.com/

Any nice hotels in Towson?

There's a Sheraton (chain hotel but decent and well located), right next to the big mall, in the center of town within a short walk of all of the Towson "attractions", but most of the other hotels in the area are pretty typical suburban strip road hotels. There's also a high rise hotel attached to Towson University right in town but since it is also used as overflow housing for students, let the buyer beware. I think that if I were recommending to a visitor, I would recommend downtown Baltimore or some of the other well located city hotels. Cross Keys is a real nice place to stay too (I'm not impartial there since I live right up the road). It's easy to get everywhere from there and quite a nice residential area.

never heard of this place....

Never heard of Towson? Gosh. How could anybody miss the home of Elaine (from Seinfeld), Divine (AKA Glen Milstead is buried there) of the John Waters movies, swimmer Michael Phelps, ex-Vice Pres Spiro Agnew, Black and Decker and part time resident F Scott Fitzgerald? Head north on York Road and when you pass the Baltimore city line you're in Towson.

found it on Google Earth...cool