Before building its proposed Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (DSAI) Institute, the Johns Hopkins University is planning to collect some data of its own.
Hopkins officials this week disclosed that the university has offered to gather data about the structural condition of homes near the proposed site of the DSAI project before construction begins, for residents worried about possible damage caused by the building project.
The university sent out notices of the offer earlier this month and has set March 7 as the deadline for residents to say whether they want the university to conduct structural surveys of their homes. Hopkins has engaged a specialist, Seismic Surveys LLC, to perform “pre-construction surveys and vibration monitoring” tests in February and March so it will have the data before sitework on the data institute project begins in April.
For property owners that sign up, Seismic Surveys will survey the interiors and exteriors of residences before and after construction of the DSAI project to monitor for any potential damage caused by construction activity. Surveys will include exterior facades and interiors of homes, including walls, windows and doors.
The surveys have been scheduled to take place between February 24 and March 28, typically take 30 to 60 minutes to complete, and require the owner to be present to provide access. Most will be scheduled for Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. but Seismic will schedule other times if necessary to accommodate the owner. The survey team will also be photographing public areas, including streets, sidewalks and building exteriors, and deploying noise and vibration monitoring equipment as part of its data collection.
Eight areas are eligible for the Hopkins-funded surveys. They are: 301 to 323 Wyman Park Drive; 3174 through 3100 Remington Avenue; 3020 through 3042 Remington Avenue; 3027 through 3037 Remington Avenue; 243 through 299 W. 31st Street; 300 through 314 W. 31st Street; 301 through 315 W. 31st Street and 2948 through 2960 Wyman Parkway.
‘Global hub’
An announcement about the survey offer came towards the end of a four-and-a-half hour meeting on Wednesday between Hopkins officials and residents worried about the DSAI project’s impact on them and their properties in the surrounding area.
It’s one of several ways that Hopkins is responding to concerns that residents have expressed about the DSAI project as the university prepares to begin a construction project that’s expected to last four years.
The project consists of two connected buildings that will house Hopkins’ DSAI Institute. According to Hopkins, the DSAI Institute is a cornerstone of the university’s Ten for One strategic plan and will be a global hub for data science and artificial intelligence research. It will bring together experts in artificial intelligence, data science and translation, machine learning, applied mathematics, computer engineering and computer science. It’s expected to fuel discoveries in a variety of fields, from neuroscience and precision medicine to climate resilience and sustainability, the social sciences and humanities.
The location is the intersection of Wyman Park Drive and Remington Avenue. Hopkins plans to build the DSAI structures on both sides of Wyman Park Drive and connect them both underground and by a pedestrian skybridge. The larger of the two structures, DSAI South, will be on the same block as the site where Hopkins is building a new home for the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute, due to open this year. The second structure, DSAI North, will replace an Early Learning Center that Hopkins is relocating to University Parkway.
The construction site is close to two-story rowhouses dating from the first half of the 1900s. One of the most prominent houses is an end-of-the-row dwelling that features a mural by the local artist GAIA of Mr. Ed the Cat with a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron, a fox and a raccoon in the foreground.
For more than a year, residents have voiced concerns that construction will create problems for them both during and after construction, from parking shortages and noise to structural damage to their homes and loss of wildlife along Stony Run Creek. They have asked Hopkins to find another site for its project and said they wouldn’t support requests by the university for any zoning variances to obtain building permits.
In response, Hopkins and its architect, ZGF, designed two buildings that can be built “as of right,” without need for any zoning variances. Both structures will be lower than 65 feet, the height allowed by the city without a waiver. Hopkins has also reduced the project’s square footage by 30 percent – from 684,500 square feet when first announced to 476,572 square feet now, down more than 200,000 square feet.
Preventing disruption
The meeting on Wednesday was the latest in a series that Hopkins has held with community residents to discuss the project and plans for construction. It drew several dozen residents — from Remington, Wyman Park, Hampden and Charles Village — to Mason Hall on the Homewood campus. While other DSAI meetings have focused on the design of the buildings, including their square footage and heights, the one on Wednesday focused on details related to construction and potential disruption to residents in the surrounding area.
The main speaker from Hopkins’ team was Lee Coyle, Senior Director for Planning and Architecture at the university. Coyle said construction will be managed by a joint venture of Whiting-Turner Contracting Company and Mahogany Inc., a minority-owned firm. He introduced Stacy Percoski, a division vice president for Whiting-Turner, who gave an update on construction preparations and answered questions from the audience along with Coyle.
Here are some of the topics they addressed:
Construction timetable: Construction is expected to begin in April and end in the summer of 2029, assuming permits are issued as anticipated. The first stages will involve preliminary sitework, such as relocating utilities and some demolition to make way for the new buildings The preliminary sitework will be followed by excavation of the site and then construction of the new buildings, which will be “coming out of the ground” in mid-2026.
Hours of construction: Construction work will not start before 7 a.m., as required by city law, and end between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. One resident requested that the start time be moved to 8 a.m. He said that even though work can’t begin until 7 a.m., crews working at the nearby Agora Institute construction site start making noise any time after 5:45 a.m.
Parking for construction workers: Hopkins has said the work will result in the creation of 500 jobs in the construction trades over various stages of the project. Coyle and Percoski said Hopkins is creating two satellite parking areas for construction supervisors and crews – up to 150 spaces in Hopkins’ San Martin Parking Garage and up to 300 spaces on the Eastern High School property on 33rd Street – with shuttles to the construction site and a food truck offering free breakfast as an incentive to use the 33rd Street lot.
Street closings: One block of Wyman Park Drive, the stretch between Remington Avenue and San Martin Drive, will be closed to through traffic during much of the construction period, likely starting in the summer of 2025. Some sidewalks also will be closed around the site, and some parking spaces will be eliminated along 31st Street.
Tree removal: About nine mature trees along Remington Avenue will be taken down during construction and then replaced.
Truck traffic: Percoski and Coyle said they anticipate two types of construction traffic generated by the project: ‘general construction traffic’ and “tractor trailer traffic.’ Percoski said her team will be recommending routes that truck drivers can take to minimize disruption on the way to the job site and she is open to suggestions. She said the team will try to minimize instances of trucks lining up around the site and blocking roads for others. One resident noted that the construction team put “dump trucks” on the list of ‘general construction traffic’ when they can cause houses to shake and vibrate when they go by as much as tractor trailers.
Access to the completed building: One resident asked if the new DSAI buildings will be open to the general public or have any features that the general public can use — “Is there access for the community?” she asked. “Can I go to the café and use the bathroom?” Coyle said the adjacent Agora Institute building will have a restaurant that is open to the public, and others have said it will host events that the public can attend. Coyle said he couldn’t say what Hopkins’ stance will be regarding public access to the DSAI buildings: “We don’t know at this point in time what public access will be provided to that building,” he said.
Environmental impact: Hopkins has engaged several environmental impact consultants to be part of the DSAI project. Ornithologist Susan Elbin, who is Conservation Scientist Emerita with the New York City Bird Alliance, is providing guidance to the design team on “bird-safe design” for building façade bird strike prevention. She will work with Lindsay Jacks, director of Lights Out Baltimore, on migratory bird inventories.
In addition, Steward Green, an environmental firm located in New Jersey and Maryland, has been engaged to perform an inventory of species that inhabit the area around the construction site. Specimens to be monitored include plants, birds, fauna and aquatic creatures. Steward Green will also advise on protecting Stony Run Creek from groundwater contamination generated by construction activity, including continuous water quality monitoring of Stony Run Creek and regular site inspections during construction. Coyle said this is the first time Hopkins has commissioned this sort of inventory.
Structural surveys
After Coyle presented information about the structural surveys of residences, one resident, Lisa Lewenz, said she lives on Keswick Road and her house isn’t within the area Hopkins is offering to survey. Lewenz said she thought Hopkins needs to expand the area where it’s conducting surveys to include portions of Hampden and an area called Gilman Terrace, to take into account the impact of vibrations from truck traffic heading to and from the construction site. She also urged Hopkins to extend its deadline past March 7 to give residents more time to sign up.
Coyle said Hopkins set the March 7 deadline because officials want to complete the surveys before sitework begins in April, so they have a baseline of information by then. He said it’s accepted practice in the construction industry to survey homes within 300 feet of a construction site or adjacent to construction entrances and all of the homes on Hopkins’ list are within that radius. He said vibrations from typical construction activities dissipate to unperceivable levels beyond 300 feet from the source.
Too big
Despite the steps Hopkins is taking, several residents said they believe the project is too big for the site. “This building shouldn’t be here,” said Remington Avenue resident Amy Horst.
Coyle and Percoski said they appreciate the suggestions from area residents and will continue meeting with the community and working to find ways to address their concerns about the project.
“We’re here to present this project and get your feedback,” Coyle said. “We have work to do.”
This article is the definition of burying the lead… This is a nearly 500,000 sq ft building going across from 25 foot tall 100 year old row homes. The title should read “Hopkins Bullies Another Neighborhood into Submission.” Do better.
Or just out yourselves as a JHU media source. Either way, we deserve honesty.