bjarke ingels designs johns hopkins student center as ‘climbing village’ of clustered boxes

danish design lands in baltimore with bloomberg student center

The Bloomberg Student Center has opened on Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood campus in Baltimore, marking the university’s first building devoted entirely to student life. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) with interiors by Rockwell Group, the 150,000-square-foot structure establishes a new hub of activity and connection at the heart of the university’s 150th anniversary year.

Set into the sloping site at 33rd and Charles Street, the building unfolds as a composition of mass timber volumes cascading down the hill. The series of 29 interlinked pavilions, framed in wood and topped with cantilevered flat roofs, creates a sequence of sheltered terraces and accessible entries on each level. Nearly 1,000 photovoltaic panels line the roofscape, supplying roughly half of the building’s energy and underscoring Johns Hopkins’ sustainability goals. The building is targeting LEED Platinum certification. See designboom’s previous coverage with early renderings here!

image © Laurian Ghinițoiu

mass timber architecture for johns hopkins university

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)’s design introduces a language of lightness and openness along the edge of Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood campus. Exposed acoustic dowel-laminated timber ceilings and beams bring a quiet warmth to the interior, where natural daylight moves across wood surfaces and limestone floors. The glazed facade frames activity within — study groups, performances, meals — to create visibility between the university and the city.

Inside, a central stair anchors the plan. Lined with built-in seating and greenery, it connects the four levels while forming a vertical commons, described by the architects as the building’s living room. Around it, a network of adaptable rooms accommodates rehearsal studios, club spaces, recording booths, and lounges. The program remains flexible and unassigned, and invites daily use and spontaneous interaction.

image © Laurian Ghinițoiu

warm interiors by rockwell group

Rockwell Group’s interiors extend the architecture’s rhythm of timber structure and natural materiality. The designers approached the project as an ‘integrated lifestyle hub,’ choreographing social spaces that mirror the tempo of student life with places for study and gathering. White oak millwork, layered lighting, and limestone details tie together the different functions with visual coherence and tactile calm.

The food hall, one of the center’s social anchors, features local vendors selected through a collaborative process involving more than 2,000 students. Above its dining area, artist Jorge Pardo’s installation of 85 handblown glass orbs introduces a field of color and light, balancing the timber’s warmth with a sense of openness. Adjacent to the hall, Mo’s Place transitions from coffee shop to evening bar, this way linking interior activity to outdoor patios and the surrounding landscape by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates.

image © Laurian Ghinițoiu

The student center’s stepped massing bridges the topographic divide between the main academic precinct and residential areas across Charles Street. Entrances at multiple levels invite movement through the building and reinforce its role as a connective threshold. Terraces and planted courtyards extend the interior outward, forming informal zones for gathering beneath the timber rooflines.

Bjarke Ingels describes the project as a ‘village of timber pavilions climbing the natural hill on the university’s edge.’ The phrase captures both its physical structure and its social intent — a place designed to host the evolving rituals of university life. For Johns Hopkins, the center represents an architectural consolidation of student culture once dispersed across campus. With its calm material palette together with its open and sunlit interiors, the Bloomberg Student Center stands as a framework for that culture to grow.

image © Laurian Ghinițoiu

image © Nic Lehoux