March 2025
Students and faculty from Morgan State University School of Architecture + Planning (SA+P), representatives from Baltimore Department of Planning, and design professionals travel to Baltimore’s sister city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The trip includes design workshops, visits to design firms and architecture schools, architecture tours, lectures, the cities of Antwerp and Amsterdam, and more. Community-centered design, placekeeping, and social sustainability are the key themes for this year’s trip. Professor Cristina Murphy (SA+P) is the lead organizer/curator for this annual trip. Baltimore Department of Planning staff (Community Planning and Revitalization, and the Office of Sustainability) are joining the trip.
April 2025
Community organizers, city planners, and researchers from the Netherlands reciprocate the exchange by coming to Baltimore for a workweek. Goals for this research trip: learning how community-led visioning and urban development happens in Baltimore, and alternatives to real-estate-developer-driven development; sharing examples of community-led initiatives in Amsterdam and Rotterdam; how city government can support community-led development; how to engage and empower youth in shaping the future of their neighborhood.
This exchange is part of a growing ongoing collaboration that started as a joint studio by Morgan State University School of Planning + Architecture and the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design in 2019 around the theme of the Just City.
https://baltimoresistercities.org/architecture-exchange-2025/