YO Baltimore: From Blank Brick Facade to Neighborhood Landmark

A neighborhood anchor for over 25 years.

Located in Harlem Park, YO Baltimore has provided a hub for youth to find resources and community for a quarter of a century. The program (under the Mayor’s Office of Employment and Development) serves youth between the ages of 18 and 24, providing career development opportunities, GED education, case management, job placement, job readiness training, mental health services, and other assorted wrap-around services. 

Limiting physical features:

The Vision: develop a coordinated placemaking strategy aligned with broader neighborhood revitalization efforts.

This project is falls under the context of Harlem Park’s recent Neighborhood Master Plan, which identifies public realm aesthetics, upkeep, and streetscape quality as key challenges and highlights the importance of schools, community centers, art spaces, and pedestrian-friendly environments. Read the full master plan by design firm Ayers Saint Gross on their website.

Through the Neighborhood Design Center’s Community Design Works (CDW) program, NDC partnered with YO to co-create an achievable plan to transform the building into a vibrant landmark, showcasing the center as a place that is alive, active, and provides high-quality services to the residents of the area. 

The Plan: Map how participants use outdoor spaces, identify challenges, and share ideas for improvement.

NDC began with site visits and staff conversations to better understand operational needs and existing conditions. Through precedent imagery exercises and collage-making activities, participants explored visual styles, messaging, and color palettes that felt authentic to them. Draft concepts were later shared during YO Fest, allowing additional feedback and refinement.

The Plan: Provide recommendations intentionally designed to be phased and achievable over time.

These insights informed a cohesive design direction that focused on realistic, high-impact interventions. Proposed strategies included murals and facade art, vertical banners and window graphics, painted crosswalks, expanded tree pits, refreshed planting beds, improved seating, and shade structures to make outdoor spaces more usable year-round.

Offering pathways forward without prescribing a single implementation approach.

NDC identified a range of potential resources to support future implementation, including local artists, placemaking organizations, grant opportunities, and funding sources related to public art, greening, and streetscape enhancements.

The Future

In the short term, even modest improvements have the potential to shift perception and demonstrate the possibilities for improvement, paving the way for future project funding.

Long-term, durable materials, resilient plantings, and partnerships for upkeep will be essential. The team will continue outreach with neighborhood leadership and members of YO’s wider target demographic to take this strong foundation to the next level.

The power of community design.

This project was facilitated by NDC staff Julia DiMauro and Maura Dwyer, working with lead design volunteer Gina Walker of Sheehan and Walker who spent many hours on this project, developing the designs and visuals. Additional other volunteers included theater artist and educator Tina Canady who facilitated an engagement session over the summer, and Chloe Kauffman, a community planner for the City of Hyattsville.