As part of the kickoff celebration of its 150th anniversary, Johns Hopkins University officially dedicated the new Bloomberg Student Center, its first facility built solely for student life. This landmark addition to the university's historic Homewood campus reflects the aspirations of students who for generations have sought spaces to connect, socialize, and participate in student organizations and the performing arts, and much more.
Designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and interior architect Rockwell Group in collaboration with executive architect Shepley Bulfinch and landscape design by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA), the new 150,000-square-foot building is designed to meet the evolving needs of Hopkins undergraduate and graduate students with a state-of-the-art food hall featuring local vendors, a pub and coffee bar, a flexible 250-seat performance venue, a central atrium with open seating, dance studios, club meeting rooms, recording studios, flexible gathering places, a digital media center, and even an esports lounge. The Bloomberg Student Center is named for Hopkins alumnus Michael R. Bloomberg, Engineering '64, founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies, and 108th mayor of New York City, in recognition of his extraordinary commitment to supporting Johns Hopkins students.
The new facility serves as a new hub for campus life, connecting members of the Hopkins community from across different campuses, backgrounds, interests, and academic pursuits. Designed to emphasize openness, the Student Center's rooms and event facilities are flexible and shared by all, with no permanently assigned spaces. The rooms and gathering areas will support both everyday student needs and special events, while promoting engagement among different groups of students and spontaneous connections between individuals. With abundant natural light, the Student Center also contains interior green spaces and exterior patios for students to gather. In alignment with the university's ambitious sustainability commitments, the project is targeting LEED Platinum certification.
Located at 33rd Street and Charles Street, at the nexus of the Homewood campus and the surrounding neighborhood, the building was conceived as a series of cascading, mass timber-framed volumes with flat, cantilevered roofs topped with nearly 1,000 photovoltaic panels, which generate approximately half of the building's electricity. The resulting "village" of 29 pavilions is carved into its 30-foot sloped site, allowing direct entry on all four levels, enhancing accessibility while maintaining a human scale. Exposed wood columns and ceilings are connected by an expansive glazed façade that floods the interior with daylight from all sides and offers passersby views into the ever-changing mosaic of student life within.
"Where student activities at Johns Hopkins University were once dispersed, they are now clustered at the Bloomberg Student Center, a village of timber pavilions climbing the natural hill on the university's edge," said Bjarke Ingels, Founder & Creative Director of BIG. "At its heart, underneath the solar-paneled rooftop, the Center is a cascading, four-seasons meeting space solely for students to pursue social, creative, and other non-academic activities. 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 Center's interior is a fully integrated lifestyle hub featuring vital, non-academic services that surround and support scholarship, including collaboration, dining, socializing, creating, and performing. The building's unique structural grid informed the orientation of the various programmatic needs. Lounges and multipurpose rooms accommodating student exhibits, community meetings, gaming, health and wellness, and more radiate around a central communal stair that connects all four levels and incorporates seating and planters with lush greenery. This soaring atrium serves as the Center's "Living Room," encouraging relaxation, studying, and gathering. The acoustic dowel-laminated timber (ADLT) ceilings, beams, and columns are complemented with natural materials and warm tones, including an array of limestone and white oak millwork.
Carefully integrated into a hill along Charles Street, the Bloomberg Student Center connects the main Homewood campus with student housing across the street. Its four accessible levels feature patios, indoor-outdoor gathering areas, outdoor seating, and green spaces created by MVVA, who are known for their innovative work on projects including the Brooklyn Bridge Park, Presidential Centers for both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center.
"Our approach to the interior architecture was to choreograph a series of social, flexible spaces that reflect the daily rhythms of a student's life beyond the classroom," said David Rockwell, Founder and President of Rockwell Group. "We were inspired by the building's timber structure and column grid to organize a dynamic interior where natural materials, warm tones, and layered lighting create a sense of cohesion across a lot of different programmatic areas. The result is an environment that encourages collaboration, performance, and gathering - an integrated lifestyle hub."
The project reflects years of student input and over 1,500 voices from across campus, which directly influenced the selection of the design team. This feedback was essential in shaping the building's programming, particularly the integration of multifunctional creative spaces that support dance, music rehearsal, painting, ceramics, and spaces dedicated to health and wellness, as well as the inclusion of indoor trees and plants, and other features that enhance connection to the natural environment.
"Up until this point, there hasn't been a space like this at Hopkins," said Scott Coleman, a fourth-year undergraduate student. "I think this will be the center of campus. I think this will be the center of the community, where people can really connect with each other, create, and express themselves. It expands the possibilities for what you can do here at Hopkins in just a day." "For the first time, Johns Hopkins has a dedicated student center, an idea shaped directly by students through an extensive, rich, and inclusive programming process grounded in the university's strategic vision," said Matthew Gifford, AIA, Principal at Shepley Bulfinch. "This building is designed to support the whole student body, offering spaces that balance academic rigor with opportunities for creativity, connection, and restoration. From club activities and quiet reflection to a range of food options and social engagement, this dynamic and adaptable center will meet the evolving needs of students for years to come, truly reflecting the spirit and future of the Hopkins community."
