The story of Baltimore’s McKeldin Fountain is an example of the escalating privatization of public spaces world-wide. In addition to being popular among local workers, tourists and residents from all over the City, the site is at a highly visible intersection in downtown Baltimore. This lead to the Square becoming an important site for protests, including Occupy Baltimore and Peoples Power Assembly. In 2013 the ACLU, on behalf of the Women In Black, won a civil suit naming McKeldin Square a model Free Speech Zone for Baltimore City’s public parks and Inner Habor. Under public controversy, the brutalist-style fountain was demolished in 2017. For remembering the fountain they created an augmented reality app, viewers hold up a tablet or smart-phone like a protest sign and reveal a full-scale, 3D architecturally correct simulation of the original fountain. Sprinkled throughout are ‘memory artifacts’, such as koi, skates and pennies that trigger the Baltimore heroes who reminisce on protests.
