The 1501 Guilford Ave building (most commonly known as the Copycat Building) was built in 1897 as a manufacturing warehouse. Today it has become home to the creative class of Baltimore, Maryland and continues to be a creative landmark of the Station North Arts and Entertainment District.
In order to save manufacturing companies inside the building from moving out, Charles Lankford bought the Copycat Building in 1983 from a previous owner for the sum of $225,000. The building was nicknamed "the Copycat" due to a billboard advertising for the Copy Cat printing company that stood on its roof for years. At the time, it housed a variety of light-industrial tenants.
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"After a while we decided, as an experiment, to take one floor and convert it into artist studios, since we were so close to Maryland Institute College of Art," Lankford says. "Over time, everybody started 'cheating'--instead of renting an apartment and a studio, they would save money by living in their studios." Lankford, who added a 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) industrial building at 409 E. Oliver St. that has also come to house artists to his portfolio in 1983, says he has "never hidden" from the city that artists have been working and living in his buildings. But he has had run-ins with various cities agencies over its legality. As a first step to getting his buildings "legit," he launched his own campaign to change the area's zoning from industrial to residential three years ago--only to be told that such a move was illegal. "There was no mechanism to allow this type of change," Lankford says. "You couldn't go from industrial to residential." |
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—Brennen Jensen, "Industry to Easels", Baltimore City Paper |
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The Copy Cat Building was also home to The Wham City Art's Collective, former home to Baltimore artist Dan Deacon, Blood Baby, Santa Dads, Videohipos, Ed Schrader, Jimmy Joe Roche, and others. In addition to hosting local and touring acts Wham City hosted live stage performances, including of their interpretation of Beauty And The Beast, and held the first Whartscape Festival in the building in 2006.
Bands that have played the warehouse include: Grimes, Fat Day, Lightning Bolt (Rhode Island), Black Forest/Black Sea (Rhode Island), Japanther (Brooklyn, NY), Wolf Eyes (Ann Arbor), Gravenhurst (England), Robotnicka (France), The Death Set, Matt + Kim, Nautical Almanac, Long Live Death, The USAISAMONSTER, Need New Body, Landed, Rapdragons, Dan Deacon, Yukon, Muscle Brain.
Today, the Copy Cat is still home to many young artists, musicians, filmmakers, and professionals looking for a large space to live, create, study, and live in the city. There are many residents who utilize their living spaces to host art and music-related events.
Bands and other performers that currently list themselves as residents: Aardvark Mountain, Aghost, Alternate Seduction, Anteater Mountain, Avocado Happy Hour, Avocado Mountain, Happy Mountain, Danimal Collective, Auxiliary Thumbs, Baby Gap, The Babysitter's Club Mountain, Bad Soap, Baleen Relay, the Bel-Air Shitter, Bent Bread, Benjie Loveless, Bread Bender, Bon Appetit, Bored Control, Chiefs Hat, Chris Martinelli and Tropical Punch, The Church of Stop!, Crab Rangoon, Craft Service, Crumb, Crystal Mountain, Crystal Rainbow, Do While, Dope Body, Double Dagger, Each Other, Each Others, Ego Reduction, Encino Qdoba, Encino Thug, Exposed Wall, Eye Lid, Farts Per Second, Fish Lip, Focal Plane, Four Pounds of Bacon, Frank, Got Scalped?, Gotta Go to Work, Grainfinder, Grandlid, Grayson James Brown, Happy Family, Hexspeak, Holy Ghost Party, Impress, In Every Room, Iron Pile, Kirby Adams, Lee B. Freeman, Life, Leaf Shutter, Male Tuxedo Aggression, Mayonnaise Commercial, Metal Detector, Moccasin Brain, Moonraker, Mountain Mountain, My Father's Ass, No Name, Painful Dad, P.A.R.E., Pale Iron, Pare, Peanut Butter Balloon, Peanut Butter Mountain, Pet Rock, Pigment X, Pilar Diaz, Pipe Loop, Poor Mouth, Rainbow Mountain, Rainbow Crystals, Rainbow Rainbow, Rapdragons, Republican Noise, Richard Demerol, Rocktapus!, Royal Le, Run DMT, Savage Suns, Sekret Dyke, Semya, Sharp Shitter, Sleepover, Slop Shoe, Smoke Like A Raven, Soda Brain, Smart Growth, Soft Cat, the Slimeys, x Stopping Down x, Turnip Bay Audio, Turnip Bay Coast Guard Marching Band, Turnip Bay Corps of Engineers, Turquoise Cats, Used Tire, Van Jones S.T.R.O.N.G., Water Tower, Walker Diggs, WCBM Rockers/Revenge, Weekends, Wild Furby, Wolfpack Jazz, Wooden Invalid, and Yawn.
Famous quotes containing the word building:
“The real dividing line between early childhood and middle childhood is not between the fifth year and the sixth year—it is more nearly when children are about seven or eight, moving on toward nine. Building the barrier at six has no psychological basis. It has come about only from the historic-economic-political fact that the age of six is when we provide schools for all.”
—James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)