Hopkins Student Center
Baltimore USA
The brief was for a new 150,031gsf Student Center for Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus. The scheme was envisaged to act as a beacon on Charles Street, creating a strong link between campus and Baltimore community. Outdoor spaces and connections were of particular importance.
A Connected Campus
The aim was to break down boundaries and integrate the campus community with the local neighbourhood. The Center was designed to be a civic symbol for the university and a home from home for its student population. We analysed the context to understand the campus.
On one side, our scheme wraps around the power plant and leads down to the Sculpture Garden. On the other side, it bends around the and reaches out to the grassy area of the Beach. It opens its arms to embrace one of the oldest buildings on campus, the Merrick Barn.
A Welcoming Destination
The covered porch makes a Baltimore-style threshold, a meeting place on Charles Street, and you can see through to the life inside the building.
The student centre works around a lively daylift central hall, with easy connections from inside to outside at every level. The stepped Forum is a gathering place, a place for informal meetings and pop-up performances at the very heart of the building.
Student Life: Flexible Spaces
There are different rooms for rehearsals, performance and events. Stair landings look into the treetops. Roof gardens overlook the landscape.
This is a generous and multifunctional scheme with spaces opening out to nature at every level. It was designed to be legible, open and inclusive, easy to navigate for one and all. The dining room opens out to the new campus plaza, a place for students to feel at home.
The Merrick Barn sits at the centre of the scheme, in a green landscape of quiet pockets and sociable places.
Our intention was to make an architecture that belongs to Johns Hopkins. A new architecture, in sympathetic scale with the character of the campus.
