A constellation of space 150 years in the making
Hopkins Student Center
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD
The Hopkins Student Center forms a new social engagement hub for the entire Johns Hopkins University community.
Founded in 1876 as America’s first research university, Johns Hopkins University has a long history of academic excellence, but was in search of a non-academic space dedicated to socialization and relaxation. The new Hopkins Student Center addresses this gap. Designed as a vibrant community hub, the 150,000-square-foot facility offers spaces for relation, social engagement, and creativity, fulfilling generations of students’ desires for a “living room” on campus.
Designed to complement a rigorous academic life, the new Hopkins Student Center includes spaces for relaxation and socializing, student resources and support, a digital media center, performance space with seating for 200 people, multipurpose rooms, and a public food hall – supporting future visionaries as they unlock their next great discovery.
The Hopkins Student Center is built at the intersection of 33rd Street and North Charles Street, which runs through Baltimore and cuts between the school campus and Charles Village neighborhood where 3,500 students live. This central location is intended to provide a new link between the school and its community.
The facility’s “village” concept is comprised of a series of cascading timber volumes that connect interior spaces to the surrounding outdoor areas of the Grove and “the Beach.” The glass facade provides transparency and interaction between student life within the building and in the surrounding campus. Prominently located on a hill, the facade follows the sloped grade, allowing direct access to all four levels. The interior forms’ open-plan, flexible layouts are tailored to the evolving needs of the Hopkins community.
Not academically focused, but entirely social by design, open to all, reserved for none, and boasting the kind of flexible spaces that invite connection and collaboration.
To align with the university’s sustainability goals, the building is constructed using mass timber and topped with photovoltaic panels. The mass timber structure creates a warm and acoustically comfortable environment, with light filtering in through clerestory glazed windows. An circular pathway provides continuous access to the building’s perimeter under 29 cantilevered roof planes, which offer shading and reduce HVAC loads. The roofs, covered in photovoltaic panels, generate up to 40% of the building’s annual energy consumption. This design strategy supports the university’s broader sustainability objectives, including achieving LEED Platinum Certification.
To define a vision for the Student Center that accurately reflects the unique culture of Johns Hopkins University, our team led a robust programming effort, engaging stakeholders across the Johns Hopkins community. By engaging diverse stakeholders, we explored how the students socialize, connect, relax, and manage stress. Feedback was gathered through strategies designed to directly engage the campus community, including ice cream socials, pop-up office hours, targeted stakeholder discussions, interactive mapping tools, and surveys. With over 8,000 data points analyzed, the insights have shaped a student center designed to meet the varied needs of the university’s diverse population.
Shepley Bulfinch programmed the building and served as Executive Architect on the project, in collaboration with BIG as Design Architect, Rockwell Group for interior design, and Michael Van Valkenburgh for landscape architecture. Renderings © BIG.