Copycat Building

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The Copy Cat Building is a Baltimore, Maryland landmark containing artists' live/work spaces.

Charles Lankford bought the 165,000-square-foot brick building at 1501 Guilford Avenue in 1983. The building is commonly called the "Copy Cat Building" after a billboard for the Copy Cat printing company that stood on its roof for years.[1] 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 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

Today the Copy Cat is home to many young artists, musicians, and professionals looking for a large space to live, create, and study. At about 50 cents per square foot, the loft style building is cost-effective. The Copy Cat remains a functional artist's housing community with great influence on the Baltimore art scene. On the weekends one can find a number of showcases of musicians.

Bands that have played the warehouse include: Lightning Bolt (Rhode Island), Black Forest/Black Sea (Rhode Island), Japanther (Brooklyn, NY), Wolf Eyes (Ann Arbor), Gravenhurst (England), Robotnicka (France), The Death Set (Australia), Matt + Kim, Nautical Almanac, Long Live Death, and the USAISAMONSTER.

The Copy Cat Building was also home to The Wham City Art's Collective, former home to rising Baltimore acts Dan Deacon, Blood Baby, Santa Dads, and Butt Stomach. Wham City has also been known to put on live stage performances of their interpretation of Beauty And The Beast and has hosted a number of experimental dance formals.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Jensen, Brennen. "Your Art Here: Will the Station North Arts District Paint a Brighter Future for Midtown", "Baltimore City Paper", July 30, 2003. Accessed May 17, 2007.