In June 2020, Johns Hopkins University completed its $372.5 million acquisition of the Newseum in Washington, D.C., which had closed the year before. A $275 million renovation of that building resulted in the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center, a higher education facility that brings together many of the university’s divisions within a building redesigned as a vertical campus for transparency and sustainability.
The 435,000-ft facility opened last August at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue at the heart of the nation’s capital. It is anchored by Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies, its Carey Business School, its Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the Peabody Institute, and the newly launched School of Government and Policy. The Center’s mission, stated Johns Hopkins, is to “connect the worlds of research and policy, educate future leaders and innovators, convene a range of viewpoints to foster discovery and dialogue, and bring a fresh infusion of artistic expression.”
More than 3,000 students, faculty, researchers, and staff come through this 10-story building daily. The Center allocates 300,000 sf of its interior space to learning, with 38 high-tech classrooms of varying capacities. On the east side of the building’s seven-story-tall interior atrium, a 20x27-ft “floating” glass classroom hangs from a pair of bridge girders. On the west side of the atrium rises a 70-ft treehouse-like stacked assemblage of classrooms and open lounges.
The atrium is anchored by a sloped seating area called The Beach, a nod to the grassy space at Johns Hopkins’ Homewood campus in Baltimore.
Ennead gets another shot at an old project
Inside the Center as well are the Irene and Richard Frary Library on its second floor, an event space called The Link on its fourth floor, a 3,350-sf multimedia suite, a fitness and wellness center, a lounge with 435 seats, and a 375-seat theater with a 640-sf stage and 7,000 sf of backstage support. Space has been earmarked for a future restaurant and café.
The building’s exterior is encased in an enlarged glass façade and a 50-ft curtainwall that faces Pennsylvania Avenue; pink marble cladding, and 16,888 sf of roof terraces. “As architects, it is a rare opportunity to revisit an earlier design and reimagine it for an entirely new purpose,” said Richard Olcott, FAIA FAAR, Design Partner at Ennead Architects, this Center’s exterior architect, and the original architect of the Newseum.
This project’s building team also included SmithGroup (AOR, lighting design, fire protection, life safety engineering), Rockwell Group (interior architect), Clark Construction (GC), Wiles Mensch (CE), LERA Consulting Structural Engineers (SE), WSP (MEP engineer, fire protection, life safety engineer), Oehme, van Sweden (landscape architect), Babich Acoustics (acoustics), and BrightTree Studios (A/V). MGAC provided project and cost management support.
A reduced carbon footprint
Concerning the atrium, Rockwell Group identifies two key insertions: the “Room Stair” that wraps around the building’s glass rooms and lounges; and the “Room Bridge” that houses classrooms and lounge spaces, and bridges both sides of the building.
The building team eliminated 77.8 tons of carbon dioxide from the construction process by using CarbonCure concrete. The team also recycled or diverted from landfills 96.6 percent of the project’s construction waste that, according to SmithGroup, included demolishing 50,000 sf of interior floorplates to make way for 90,000-sf floorplates, and removing the Newseum’s marble exterior panels.
Related Stories
| Aug 27, 2013
College of the Desert in Palm Springs to produce more energy than it consumes
A 60-acre solar farm next to the College of the Desert in Palm Springs, Calif., along with a number of sustainable building features, are projected to help the campus produce more energy than it uses.
| Aug 26, 2013
What you missed last week: Architecture billings up again; record year for hotel renovations; nation's most expensive real estate markets
BD+C's roundup of the top construction market news for the week of August 18 includes the latest architecture billings index from AIA and a BOMA study on the nation's most and least expensive commercial real estate markets.
| Aug 26, 2013
13 must-attend continuing education sessions at BUILDINGChicago
Building Design+Construction's new conference and expo, BUILDINGChicago, kicks off in two weeks. The three-day event will feature more than 65 AIA CES and GBCI accredited sessions, on everything from building information modeling and post-occupancy evaluations to net-zero projects and LEED training. Here are 13 sessions I'm planning to attend.
| Aug 22, 2013
Energy-efficient glazing technology [AIA Course]
This course discuses the latest technological advances in glazing, which make possible ever more efficient enclosures with ever greater glazed area.
| Aug 14, 2013
Five projects receive 2013 Educational Facility Design Excellence Award
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on Architecture for Education (CAE) has selected five educational and cultural facilities for this year’s CAE Educational Facility Design Awards.
| Aug 14, 2013
Green Building Report [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Building Design+Construction's rankings of the nation's largest green design and construction firms.
| Aug 8, 2013
Energy research animates science sector [2013 Giants 300 Report]
After an era of biology-oriented spending—largely driven by Big Pharma and government concerns about bioterrorism—climate change is reshaping priorities in science and technology construction.
| Aug 8, 2013
Top Science and Technology Sector Engineering Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Affiliated Engineers, Middough, URS top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest science and technology sector engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the U.S.
| Aug 8, 2013
Top Science and Technology Sector Architecture Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
HDR, Perkins+Will, HOK top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest science and technology sector architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Aug 8, 2013
Top Science and Technology Sector Construction Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Skanska, DPR, Suffolk top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest science and technology sector contractors and construction management firms in the U.S.