One of the biggest building projects in Baltimore recently marked a construction milestone.
On May 16, Johns Hopkins University leaders and their contractors held a topping-out ceremony for the $250 million Student Center under construction on North Charles Street near 33rd Street and said it’s on target to open in July 2025.
In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders’ rite traditionally held when the last beam is placed atop a structure during its construction. Participants at Hopkins’ ceremony had a chance to sign their names on the final two beams lifted into place.
The student center is the largest of several major projects underway on Hopkins’ Homewood campus, along with the $130 million modernization of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library and a new home for the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute.
Unlike many universities, Hopkins has never had a traditional student union that serves as a central social hub for all members of the community, and the student center is expected to meet that need.
Ground was broken in August 2021 and construction began in the winter of 2022. When complete, the 150,000-square-foot building will contain four levels of non-academic spaces, including themed lounges, art and enrichment spaces, locations for student resources and support services, a 200-seat theater, dance studio and dining options.
The center is also significant as the first building on the Homewood campus to feature mass timber construction – a process in which large wooden beams form the structural framework of a building instead of steel or concrete.
Architecturally, the building is a series of interlocking volumes cascading down a hill and forming a bridge from the heart of campus to the Charles Village neighborhood to the east.
The building’s flat roofs will have solar panels for energy efficiency, and the volumes’ different heights and sizes will hint at the programming inside. A central plaza will provide a setting for exhibits, performances and vendors, including food trucks.
“We’re in the process of delivering a building that meets the needs and hopes of our diverse community of students, faculty, staff and neighbors,” said University President Ronald Daniels, according to a report in the JHU Hub.
Daniels said the student center will provide gathering and meeting places for more than 400 student organizations on campus, making it “a living embodiment” of the university’s ideals. He said Hopkins students have been advocating for a student center since 1884: “I’m thrilled that we are, as of today, one step closer to answering that call.”
The design team includes the Bjarke Ingels Group as the lead architect; Shepley Bulfinch as the architect of record; Rockwell Group as the interior architect and Michael Van Valkenburgh as the landscape architect. Clark Construction Group is the lead contractor. Architects David Rockwell and Bjarke Ingels were among the design principals who came from out of town for the event.
In its coverage of the ceremony, the Hub posted a 49-second video showing how the building is taking shape and fits into the hillside and streetscape. Here is the way it looks this spring:
