The making of the

Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center

The making of the

Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center

The JHU Hopkins Bloomberg Center is a revitalization of the former Ennead-designed Newseum building. 

The Hopkins Bloomberg Center has been adapted into a 420,000-square-foot vertical academic building that establishes a new and progressive identity for JHU in Washington DC.  Designed to break down barriers between academic disciplines, the renovated building creates a true commons for communication and collaboration, serves as a bustling hub of interdisciplinary collaboration and convening, and educates and trains future civic leaders.

By reconfiguring the interior layout and adapting the exterior presence, this reinvented building has been optimized for a state-of-the-art learning environment that reinforces the identity of JHU’s Washington, D.C. home and sparks a lively and active street presence.

Dedicated to the role of journalism and free speech in our democracy, the Newseum building was conceived to be a visually open and intellectually accessible stage for the public to learn and interact with the process of news making.

Leveraging this transparency and honoring the intent of the Newseum building, the JHU building reinforces community by making the entry level more visible and open to the street.

This renovation simplifies and reorganizes the Newseum’s building plan. Originally intended to accommodate a highly specialized and linear exhibit experience, the new plan reconfigures the floorplates to increase the building’s square footage, modifies the building systems to support JHU’s academic efforts and sustainability goals, and provides accessibility.

Exterior: Before & After

The Bloomberg Center reinterprets the original Newseum’s façade with a renewed material palette that reinforces Johns Hopkins’ institutional identity and reflects the surrounding historic context. Maintaining much of the careful planning and alignments already established, subtle shifts in the façade components bring more natural light into the building to promote health and wellness within the interior.

Before After Before After Before After Before After

New Atrium Structures

Notable interior features of the Newseum included an open atrium, crisscrossed by bridges, and a long-winding ramp from top to bottom.

Before After Before After Before After Before After

The new central spaces form a nexus of activity throughout the day and evening, offering meeting, classroom, lounge, and gathering areas of varying types and scales while blurring traditional boundaries.

Clear glass replaces copper mesh glass in adjacent spaces, symbolizing transparency in democracy. Stepping back the copper glass allows the Link to capture prime views of Penn Ave and the Capitol, bringing life inside the building out to the street.

Scroll over the rendering for details on the interior 

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Rendering: Rockwell Group

Some spaces serve dual purposes, such as “The Beach,” a tiered seating/stair area reminiscent of Homewood campus’s sloping lawn, designed for informal interactions and formal gatherings. The central atrium encourages serendipitous encounters through stepped seating and circulation pathways. 

Lounge and gathering spaces maximize natural light and Capitol views. A new elevator and stair core enhance connectivity and reduce wait times. Collaborative spaces—including the library, reading room, multipurpose room, student lounges, raked forum seating, living room, and café—activate all atrium levels, creating visible energy along the Pennsylvania Avenue façade.

ART

Four commissioned, permanent, site-specific works are integrated into the building’s interior from renowned international artists Sandra Cinto, Sam Gilliam, Elias Sime, and Shahzia Sikander.

STRUCTURAL DEMOLITION

Over the course of a year and a half, the construction team removed over 9,000 tons of concrete and 3,500 tons of steel – recycling 98% of this material along the way.

The structural renovation included removing over half of four large floors between levels one through six, then rebuilding structural floors at a more appropriate cadence for the new building’s program. The structural revisions also included rotating the sheer core of the building by 90 degrees to support a configuration for the six-bank elevators that worked more efficiently with the new building’s floor programming. The project team completed all structural renovations without crane access due to existing surrounding structures.  

STRUCTURAL RETROFIT

While structural demolition was underway over 1,000,000 lbs of temporary bracing were deployed to maintain the building’s integrity and allowing for new structure to be integrated with the old. These new structures include a new concrete elevator core, over 50,000sf of new floor slabs, hanging AESS steel structures in the atrium. Overall over 1,800 tons of steel and 12,150 tons of concrete were added back to the building.

Construction progress photos of the Room Stair & Room Bridge that occupy the void of the atrium, showing the intersection of transitory spaces with lounge, meeting and classroom areas, while creating a multitude of space types and an ever-changing spatial experience with views through the atrium to Pennsylvania Ave and beyond.

Installation sequence of the custom sawtooth unitized curtainwall with copper mesh interlayer. The extra large units and large glass sizes celebrate the monumental scale of Pennsylvania Ave’s architecture.

2008

June 2021

April 2022

July 2022

January 2023

TEAM

Ennead Design Team: Richard Olcott, Kevin McClurkan, Felicia Berger, Alex O’Briant, Billy Erhard, Darla Elsbernd, Christina Fazio, Xiaoheng Hazel Hu, John Jordan, Kathleen Kulpa, Marianne Lau, Hyunjoo Lee, Mariel Mora Llorens, Shelley Yang

Architect of Record: SmithGroup

Interior Design Architect: Rockwell Group

Construction Manager: Clark Construction