News

Adaptive re-use at its finest! We have hit the ground running since settling on our $25 million construction loan with Firstrust Bank just a few short months ago, back on March 8th. Our total investment in this 250,000 sqft mixed-use development will exceed $40 million. More big things to come in the South Central PA market. It has been amazing to watch the interior progress unfold at Stehli Silk Mill over the past 3 months in Lancaster, PA! CAM has nearly finished media blasting Mills #1-3, to safely abate 100 years of lead paint from the facility and expose the rich character of the original brick walls, wood columns, beams, and ceilings. We completed underground plumbing, sawcut, and pour back, and we are currently wrapping up the metal stud framing of #1 Mill. MEP rough-in has begun, and we will continue cranking from here!

CAM Construction is honored to have attended the Chick Webb Recreation Center Groundbreaking Ceremony with Councilman Stokes, Senator McCray, Mayor Scott, Recreation & Parks Director Moore, and Housing Commissioner Kennedy—all of whom were instrumental to securing the necessary federal funding and CHAP designations to protect the rec center’s future as a free, public institution. This project, which is deeply embedded in the history of East Baltimore, serves to restore a critical facet of the community and honor the legacy of legendary Baltimore drummer William Henry “Chick” Webb and Dr. Ralph J. Young. The East Baltimore community descended upon the groundbreaking in full force, with many sporting various shirts and signs that depicted both their love for the area their excitement for the work to come. Upon completion in Fall 2025, this $16 million wellness facility will offer new basketball courts, a fitness studio, swimming pool, and even a recording studio (in memory of Chick Webb), providing a space for the neighborhood to congregate in performance, play, and education.

CAM is proud to have had the opportunity to work as a repeat client for Chesapeake Employer’s Insurance Company on their corporate headquarters renovation projects. This task, which fundamentally began as a major fire and water damage restoration effort, transitioned into an opportunity to retrofit two floors of their facility to meet the demands of post-Covid office culture. The heart of this project involved the construction of a new central break area, which functions as a community gathering space with a variety of seating configurations, food service offerings, and culinary equipment. Architecturally, the goal was to transform the affected floors into a visually distinctive environment full of glass and metallic finishes, with a variety of technology-rich huddle rooms, hot desking areas, etc. An acoustical cloud ceiling system with exposed structure was one of the key design choices JMT Architecture made to accentuate the furniture and glazed ceramic backsplash below, ushering Chesapeake into a sleek new era of office style.

Critically, CAM was able to conduct work on floors 2-3 while maintaining a continuous working environment for staff on the floors above and below. Communication was key in ensuring that life safety and security systems remained functional during this time, as both staff and workers needed access to the facility at various hours of the day. CAM was also able to save the owner tens of thousands of dollars by salvaging extensive ceiling grid sections, and by re-installing nearly all of the prior doors, frames, and hardware that had been removed and stored on-site during the demolition phase.

CAM Construction recently had the privilege of attending the final Easter Mass in the old St. Joe’s Parish, after participating in a ceremonial groundbreaking and blessing with Archbishop Lori to commemorate our major renovation project! After salvaging all pews and religious artifacts, we have begun gutting the interior, demoing the slabs, and are preparing to shore up the historic stone corners to make way for the building’s additions. Over the duration of this 11-month job, we will see the building access, foundations of the structure, utilities, stained glass windows, roof, and mechanical system transformed to foster a better, brighter space for worship and education. Find more news on the updates at https://sjpmd.org/news-1

CAM Construction is proud to have worked with SARC to provide a more comfortable, safer space for their mission of protecting victims of domestic abuse. While it was challenging to make alterations and additions to existing structures from different eras, we were able to integrate these buildings into our work and ensure the transition from structure to structure was as seamless as possible. Critically, CAM provided upgrades to security and ADA accommodations to the additions, which aligns with SARC’s goal of safety and accessibility for the people they serve.

This $68,000,000 project will transform the existing five-story, 170,000 SF State of Maryland facility into the New Baltimore City District Court.  The overhaul includes not only new mechanical, electrical, and security systems, but it also replaces the existing 1980’s era brick façade with a contemporary glass, curtainwall, and metal panel façade. A complete interior renovation will include eight new courtrooms and Judges Chambers, clerk and other support staff areas, a record-keeping area, and separate and secure access for judges as well as for the accused.  From the retrofitted deep foundations to the 22,000 SF of green roof, this building will undergo structural, aesthetic, and sustainable upgrades to bring this building into the 21st century.

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/stehli-mills-planned-rebirth-captures-neighborhoods-interest/article_962b228e-a40e-11ed-a066-8f72eeff6a58.html

We were featured in yesterday’s issue of the LNI Newspaper with an excellent article highlighting our adaptive re-use project in Lancaster, PA, which just got rolling last week following a challenging 2.5 year entitlement, design, and permitting process. CAM helped owner Knight Street Capital resolve an unprecedented 200+ review comments on its initial permit submission, in addition to extensive design consultations, concept budgeting, and value engineering efforts once the project re-bid. Just one hour north of our offices in Timonium, CAM will be overseeing this dramatic conversion of a long-abandoned industrial property. We are thrilled to help transform a vandalized eye-sore into 165 stunning loft apartments with exposed brick, columns, and beams, and historically-accurate replicas of the 1,400 original windows.

This property is rich with history, and will soon re-establish its place as a cornerstone of the surrounding neighborhood. Thanks to staff writer Chris Reber for a thoughtfully-written piece, updating the community on our progress and preservation plans; we are proud to have the opportunity to keep the promises made to the community during Knight Street’s conditional use application, after decades of floundering proposals and false hope. Four previous developers tried to get to this point, to no avail! There’s no turning back now…

A buzz of excitement was in the air as CAM wrapped up 2022 by hosting two major ribbon cutting ceremonies IN ONE WEEK, showcasing our recently completed 21st Century Schools Projects: Highlandtown Elementary/Middle and Montebello Elementary/Middle! We were overjoyed to have the chance to unveil these beautiful new facilities to the throngs of students and parents, eager to explore their new classrooms, libraries, dining halls, and collaborative learning spaces. Special thanks to leaders like Governor Larry Hogan, Senate President Bill Ferguson, Mayor Brandon Scott, Council President Nick Mosby, Principal Denise Ashley, Principal Troy Mitchell, and other city advocates who were instrumental in getting these plans approved, who came out to celebrate the momentous occasions and tour the final product.

What better feeling than to give over 1,400 young students the gift of a brand new school for Christmas! Certainly much more work to be done, but together we can change the lives of Marylanders for the better, one building at a time.

CAM celebrated our 60th anniversary at our annual Holiday luncheon, held with some of our office staff this afternoon at BCC Roland Park. Our firm was founded in Baltimore, Maryland on August 8, 1962, by Angelo F. Munafo, and has continuously operated as one of the cornerstones of the local construction industry to this day. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year from all of your friends at CAM!

Melody Simmons, commercial real estate reporter with the Baltimore Business Journal, just published an excellent article in the BBJ following her tour through our recently completed Montebello Elementary/Middle School project in Central Baltimore.

CAM was proud to be a part of a ribbon cutting ceremony with Mayor Brandon M. Scott, Michael Frenz, and so many other dignitaries yesterday! An incredible transformation and example of historic preservation, while incorporating modern finishes and cutting edge technology throughout the facility. The exterior design of the building is emblematic of the historic architectural style of the surrounding neighborhood, so the city committed to restoring the facades back to their original luster, while giving its design team the creative liberties to redevelop the interior of the facility has beyond recognition–optimized for modern occupancy! The stately character of the Field House is one area where Todd Vukmanic & his architectural team were really able to marry the exposed historic elements with the needs of today’s student athletes, performers, and general assemblies.

Executing the rear cafeterium addition, playground, and outdoor classroom spaces proved extremely challenging, given the constrained site conditions and limited points of access into the building for equipment and materials. Contending with steep slopes, working around historic window openings, maximizing views of the lake, and re-imagining the existing floorplates into a 21st Century learning environment proved a rewarding and challenging endeavor for our project management staff and the visionary team at Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates. Moreover, redirecting pedestrian and vehicular traffic patterns along Harford Road, E. 32nd Street, and Curran Drive added to the complexities of managing this job. Shoutout to our PM, Vince Culotta, our Superintendent, Jeff Schissler, and Justin Wood at MSA for all their hard work on this one over the past two years.

CAM is grateful to have been chosen as Construction Manager for this comprehensive renovation and minor additions to the historic St. Joseph’s Church in Cockeysville, MD. We are currently working through the pre-construction and bidding process in collaboration with John Srygley (JRS Architects), Msgr. Hilgartner, Tyler Tate, and other stakeholders in the parish and Archdiocese.

The job will result in a complete interior aesthetic transformation and offer a much-needed modernization of all mechanical and technological systems. The facility’s functionality will be greatly enhanced with new radiused seating oriented around the main alter, a new pipe organ and acoustical treatments designed to improve the musical experience, upgraded restrooms, ADA accessibility, and various energy efficiency measures.

CAM’s Vice President, John Speights, recently joined the St. Joe’s team in paying a visit to the original Martin Marietta quarry on Beaver Dam road, which was the source of the legendary “Cockeysville marble” comprising the facade of this historic parish. The parish’s founding members were predominantly Irish immigrants, both masons and quarrymen, who extracted this native stone and used it to erect this beautiful church. In keeping with this heritage of local craftsmanship, the team will be hand selecting stones from this special quarry to construct a prominent arch featured behind the altar.

We are excited to embark on the next chapter of this journey in spring of 2023 when physical construction is slated to begin after the Easter holiday.

See link below to a summary page of St. Joe’s “Open Wide the Doors” capital campaign, which includes renderings, conceptual floor plan, inspiration behind this initiative, town hall Q&A, and other critical fundraising info.

https://sjpmd.org/open-wide-the-doors

CAM is pleased to announce that Holabird Academy and Graceland Park/O’Donnell Heights Elementary/Middle School recently won a “Climate Champion” award from USGBC Maryland, for a LEED Zero certified project that “demonstrates advanced design solutions and approaches to addressing climate change.” We served as the GC on this highly complex, $75 million pair of sister schools in east Baltimore, a project which was made possible through close collaboration with our talented colleagues at Grimm + Parker Architects and Baltimore City Public Schools.

Our project was honored at the 2022 Community Leader Awards ceremony, hosted at the historic Clifton Mansion in North/Central Baltimore City. Special shoutout to Amy Upton, Paul Bradshaw, Maurice Gaskins, and Cynthia Smith for all of their contributions to this endeavor!

CAM was proud to sponsor the 6th Annual Walter S. Thomas, Sr. Golf Classic, held at Waverly Woods last week. We had a great time playing alongside Taber J. Small and Sharif J. Small, and all of our friends at New Psalmist Baptist Church. New Psalmist has been a valued client of ours for the past 15 years, having completed two major projects for them – their main sanctuary and worship hall, as well as the brand new Connection Center building which will serve as a vibrant community gathering space reuniting parishioners in the wake of the pandemic.

Bishop Thomas’s Scholarship Fund helps make high school children’s college dreams into a reality, and this is a cause that we can all get behind. Learn more about the organization here: https://www.wstscholarshipfund.org/home

CAM was proud to be honored in last month’s Middle Market Leaders awards hosted by the BBJ at the Center Club. Mid-sized firms such as ours are the lifeblood of the local economy, and it was an honor to share the room with such good company across a wide spectrum of industries.

Thanks to all of the owners, architects, and subcontractors who we’ve worked in close collaboration with over the past few years. Our clients and industry partners have been integral to our success.

We hope to continue making a strong impact on the built environment throughout this state over the years to come.