THE BLOOMBERG STUDENT CENTER, A CASCADING VILLAGE OF TIMBER PAVILIONS, IS THE NEW HUB OF STUDENT LIFE AT JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

A new era of student life has begun at Johns Hopkins University with the opening of the Bloomberg Student Center, a mass timber village designed in collaboration with Shepley Bulfinch and Rockwell Group. As the first student center for Johns Hopkins University, the 150,000-sq-ft building provides a central gathering space for the university’s Homewood campus, featuring 29 “floating” cantilevered roof planes integrated with nearly 1,000 photovoltaic panels. The mass timber structure combines a digital media center, a 250-seat performance space, art and dance studios, music rehearsal spaces, a dining hall, and more all under one roof. Shaped through in-depth research into the students’ needs, the building is transparent by design, welcoming daylight from all sides and offering views into the ever-changing mosaic of student life within. “Where student activities at Johns Hopkins University were once dispersed all over campus and all over town, they are now collected and clustered at the Bloomberg Student Center – a village of timber pavilions climbing the natural hill on the university’s edge. Like the indoor counterpart of The Beach – the circular sloping front lawn of the Homewood campus – the Student Center is open and inviting in all directions. Tugged into the topography, the center is a four-story building where every floor is directly accessible from the outside, from every side. As the individual timber pavilions join together, they leave generous openings in between, allowing daylight and views to reach every corner of the building. At its heart – underneath the solar paneled rooftops – the creative commons is a cascading, four seasons meeting space for students and faculty – academic, cultural, and social activities alike. The mass timber construction not only substantially reduces the embodied carbon footprint of the building, but also provides an atmosphere of welcoming warmth and inviting informality.” – Bjarke Ingels, Founder & Creative Director, BIG