STATUS
COMPLETED
CLIENT
Johns Hopkins University
TYPOLOGY
Education
SIZE M2/FT2
13,935 / 150,000
SHARE
The Bloomberg Student Center is a 150,000-sq-ft, cascading village of timber pavilions that stands as the new hub of student life at Johns Hopkins University. The light-filled structure features a roof integrated with nearly 1,000 photovoltaic panels and provides a central gathering space for the Homewood campus, connecting it to the neighboring Charles Village.
Supporting over 200 student organizations, the four-story Bloomberg Student Center serves as a welcoming front door to the JHU campus. The building combines spaces for meeting and student resources, a digital media center, a performance space with seating for 250 people, art and dance studios, music rehearsal spaces, and a dining hall all under one roof. Located along the eastern edge of the Homewood campus at the intersection of 33rd and Charles Streets, the center welcomes the 3,500+ students who live in Charles Village and improve walkability between the neighborhood and the university.
“We are thrilled to mark this milestone in our university’s 150-year history with the opening of the Bloomberg Student Center, our first-ever space dedicated to and for our students. Named in honor of our great friend and alumnus Michael R. Bloomberg, this visionary building will be a vibrant forum that embodies our commitment to bringing people together across differences of experience and interests, igniting their exchange of ideas, and strengthening our sense of community.”
EXISTING SITE
— The site is located on the hill of the Grove, next to the existing Homewood campus Beach, marking the primary gateway between the City and Campus.
INDOOR LANDSCAPE
— The indoor landscape - as vast as the 'Beach' next door - negotiates the grade of the site to allow direct entry from all four levels, while maintaining a friendly human scale.
GATHERING SPACES
— A true village of student life, the Bloomberg Student Center is comprised of an array of spaces, including art studios, music rehearsal spaces, a state-of-the-art performance space, a digital media center, and a dining hall.
SITE CONNECTIONS
— The building is rotated to align with the historic Merrick Barn next door and improve site connectivity for greater pedestrian flows.
CAMPUS LIVING ROOM
— All spaces connect back to the central Campus Living Room, an inclusive melting pot for student life and a crossroad for campus connectivity.
PROGRAM DISPLAY
— The porosity and transparency of the student center places its activities and school spirit on display, expressing an ever-changing mosaic of the student body.
THE BLOOMBERG STUDENT CENTER
— The Bloomberg Student Center is a physical expression of the diversity of the student body, and a welcoming new beacon for both campus and community.
A forest of columns supports 29 “floating” cantilevered roof planes wrapped in glass shapes an interior that blurs the boundary between indoors and out. 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.
Photovoltaic panels topping the roofs generate more than half of the center’s electricity, while the careful avoidance of materials on the Living Building Challenge Red List ensures a healthier environment for users. Together, these efforts advance the university’s sustainability goals, including the pursuit of LEED Platinum certification for the center.
"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."
The new center repositions the campus entry from the main quad, known as The Beach, to Charles Street. This shift not only opens the university to the adjacent Charles Village, but it also sets the stage for future development along this corridor. The design negotiates the sloping grade of the site to allow direct entry on all four levels, enhancing accessibility while maintaining a human scale.
Inside, a central staircase leads to a sun-drenched ‘living room’ that anchors the heart of the building, surrounded by spaces tailored to the needs of the Hopkins community. The timber structure creates a warm and acoustically comfortable environment, while the clerestory windows set between the roof planes bring natural light deep into the interior.
From Charles Street, students and visitors are greeted by a transparent façade, with dining areas spilling out onto an adjacent plaza. The building’s overhangs are optimized to block heat in the summer and capture as much sunlight as possible in winter.
“By deploying one of architecture's oldest structural principles - the timber post and beam - into a collective swarm, the Bloomberg Student Center becomes an embodiment of activity, diversity, and togetherness. The central 'living room' tying the spaces together is sure to become a new arena for both expressing and witnessing the student experience at Johns Hopkins.”
The Bloomberg Student Center is encircled by a 270-ft-diameter brick staircase that connects to a series of terraces and green spaces designed by MVVA. Paving patterns flow seamlessly from the exterior plaza to the interior, connecting the spaces – literally and figuratively – to the university’s historical past. The cascading interior spaces open onto four revitalized public areas: an events-focused commons, the shaded walkways of the Grove, an entry plaza along 33rd Street, and a new food hall and plaza to the south.
Bjarke Ingels Leon Rost Agne Rapkeviciute Andres Romero Jason Wu Corliss Ng Elizabeth Mcdonald Florencia Kratsman Guillaume Evain Jamie Maslyn Larson Jan Leenknegt Ken Chongsuwat Kevin Pham Margaret Tyrpa Oliver Thomas Kig Veerasunthorn Terrence Chew Tracy Sodder Veronica Watson Xi Zhang Alex Wu Emily Chen Chia-Yu Liu Lawrence-Olivier Mahadoo Tony-Saba Shiber Bryan Hardin Christopher Pin Deb Campbell Gabriel Jewell-Vitale Jialin Yuan Alexander Jacobson Ema Hristova Bakalova Frederic Lucien Engasser Jakub Kulisa Jesper Kanstrup Petersen Kaoan Hengles De Lima Mengzhu Jiang Tore Banke Tom Lasbrey Benjamin Caldwell Josiah Poland Mike Munoz Juan Diego Perez Diez Alan Maedo Ryan Henriksen Luca McLaughlin Cynthia Wang Alejandro Guadarrama Matthew Lau
AWARDS
WBC Craftsmanship Award, 2025
Structural Engineering Association of New York’s Structural Engineering Excellence Award - New Buildings Category, 2025
COLLABORATORS
Clark Construction
Lindner
StructureCraft
Shepley Bulfinch
Rockwell Group
MVVA
WSP-NYC
WRA
Knippers Helbig
Charcoalblue
L’Observatoire International
Point of Reference Studio/POR
Thornton Tomasetti
Acentech
Ricca
Code Red
Lerch Bates
WJE
Campbell-McCabe
Kalin Associates
Squint/Opera
