BALTIMORE-If the Exelon headquarters building at Harbor Point is constructed as designed, the office tower will include a glass cube that Elkus Manfredi Architects Ltd. say was inspired by the Apple Retail Store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

The architectural firm says the two-story cube is designed to give the building a more dramatic entrance. In place of the Apple logo, the cube will include a commissioned work of public art designed to evoke Exelon's status as an energy company, according to the Baltimore Business Journal.

To heighten the drama, the cube is designed to jut out into the sidewalk slightly, and a “black granite carpet” would extend from inside the cube, across the sidewalk, ending at the curb.

The city's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel has asked for some minor changes to the design so it is feasible the cube could be part of the final project that is expected to begin construction this fall.

“I think it's fresh and modern,” UDARP member Diane Jones Allen says. “I think it would be a mistake to put in a traditional canopy." See story in the Baltimore Business Journal.