Design
Farewell Formstone? Requiem for a Baltimore Building Material
A proposed zoning revision threatens to outlaw Formstone, ubiquitous on Baltimore's row house façades. Will anyone care?
Formstone, a stucco faux-stone material, is synonymous with the Baltimore landscape. It covers row houses in blue collar neighborhoods throughout this city; native son John Waters is a devotee.
But Formstone may be on its way to becoming illegal here. The material is banned by Baltimore’s proposed new zoning code. If the revised code is adopted, builders would not be allowed to apply it to new housing, most commercial structures, or even to existing establishments.