Charles Street is reopened to car traffic between 33rd Street and 32nd Street. Credit: Baltimore City Council member Odette Ramos.
Charles Street is reopened to car traffic between 33rd Street and 32nd Street. Credit: Baltimore City Council member Odette Ramos.

After being closed for more than four years, a key southbound stretch of Charles Street has reopened to vehicular traffic.

Starting on Aug. 2, 2021, the southbound lanes of Charles Street were closed between 33rd Street and 32nd Street for construction of the $250 million Johns Hopkins University Student Center.

Southbound traffic was detoured eastward onto 33rd Street and then to St. Paul Street, while northbound lanes of Charles Street and east-west streets such as Art Museum Drive remained open. Pedestrians and bicycle riders had to use the west side of Charles Street.

The Johns Hopkins University Student Center nears completion. Photo credit: Ed Gunts.
The Johns Hopkins University Student Center nears completion. Photo credit: Ed Gunts.

A 2021 article in the JHU Hub said the lanes would be closed “for the duration of Hopkins Student Center construction.”

The city’s Department of Transportation reopened the southbound lanes of Charles Street between 33rd and 32nd streets earlier this month. The opening is a sign that Hopkins’ student center is nearing completion, just as classes on Hopkins’ Homewood campus are due to begin on Aug. 25. An official opening is set for this fall.

Opening the lanes also makes drivers’ commutes from north Baltimore toward downtown less complicated, just as many office workers are returning from summer vacations.  

Ed Gunts is a local freelance writer and the former architecture critic for The Baltimore Sun.