From the outside, the newest buildings on the Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus bear more than a passing resemblance to each other, with brick walls, white marble trim, sloping slate roofs and solid chimneys.
But inside, they couldn't be more different. One has a distinctly residential feel, with a central seating area, library, gallery and other formal spaces. It conveys comfort, hospitality, graciousness.
The other is a setting for interdisciplinary research, with concrete floors, exposed cable trays and pipes in the ceiling, a "high bay" laboratory containing robotic equipment and lounges designed to foster interaction between researchers. It conveys vitality, energy, change.
The wide range of interior spaces inside two buildings with relatively similar shells is one of the many surprises of the Alonzo G. and Virginia G. Decker Quadrangle, the $78-million, 9-acre addition that Hopkins administrators will dedicate during an invitation-only ceremony Saturday.
Much has been made of the individual elements that are part of this addition, including a visitors center, admissions office, engineering labs and much-needed parking and recreational space. In many ways, it is a new front door to the campus.
But an even more remarkable aspect of the project is the way these pieces add up to a whole, even though they're so different.
Any project with this many elements could have wound up feeling disjointed and piecemeal. But Hopkins planners and architects adopted a design approach that put a high priority on building a campus first, and addressing individual space needs second. They used an architectural language that takes cues from the most cherished landmarks on the Homewood campus, including Homewood mansion at 3400 N. Charles St. and Gilman Hall.
They paid attention to the way buildings feel and the emotions they trigger, as well as what they contain. The result is a multifaceted addition that helps Hopkins meet its space needs for the 21st century without sacrificing one of its most valuable assets - a strong sense of place.
Architecture critic Robert Campbell refers to use of a consistent design vocabulary as architectural branding. He notes that it can be found at Princeton, Harvard and other universities. With the Decker Quadrangle, Hopkins planners have demonstrated that they know the value of Hopkins' distinctive architectural brand and won't hesitate to build on it to create the spaces they need for future generations.
For this key location, "we didn't want something unrelated to Homewood," said Travers C. Nelson, program manager for the university's office of design and construction. "This is a new quadrangle. We wanted it to be a Homewood quadrangle. We clearly wanted something that grew out of the architecture of Homewood."
The Decker Quadrangle consists of three buildings on the south side of campus, where a 550-space parking lot used to be. They are: Mason Hall, a four-story, 28,000-square-foot visitors center and admissions office visible from Wyman Park Drive; the Computational Science and Engineering Building, an 80,000-square foot "academic loft," and a 604-space underground garage. The top of the garage is a 75,000-square-foot lawn, making it one of the largest "green"-roofed buildings in the Mid-Atlantic.
The quadrangle was recommended in a campus master plan designed by Ayers/Saint/Gross of Baltimore. One of three large green spaces on the Homewood campus, it's framed by Clark Hall and Garland Hall, as well as the two new buildings. The garage provides space for people at Hopkins as well as visitors to the neighboring Baltimore Museum of Art.
If Hopkins did nothing more than turn the parking lot into a green space, it would have been a remarkable feat. As designed by landscape architect Michael Vergason, the open space is not so much a rectangle as an oval, one-sixth of a mile in circumference for jogging purposes. It was intentionally rounded to feel different from the university's other quads and reflect the more "romantic" side of campus, facing Wyman Park Dell.
The challenge of designing the garage and the two new buildings on the quad fell to Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott, an architectural firm based in Boston, with Tom Kearns as design principal and Steve Erwin as managing principal. Shepley Bulfinch worked closely with Hopkins to create buildings that, while not identical, feel like part of the same family.
Mason Hall pays homage to Homewood, the 1801 Federal-style mansion that was built by Charles Carroll of Carrollton and now serves as a university museum. Mason Hall was named after former University board chairman Raymond A. "Chip" Mason and his wife, Rand. The lower level provides public space for campus visitors, including a living room-like waiting area, library, gallery of university artifacts and auditorium for group briefings.
Mason Hall is full of touches designed to help visitors learn about Hopkins, from "Homewood" brick to lacrosse helmets. One of the more memorable touches is a series of phrases on the auditorium seatbacks that list Hopkins-related accomplishments, such as "the first definitive observation of a black hole" and "the invention of cardiopulmonary resuscitation." As if to remind applicants that more Hopkins accomplishments are yet to come, some of the seatbacks read: "This space is reserved for your achievement."
The computational science and engineering building, framing the east side of Decker Quadrangle, is clad with the same materials as Mason Hall but is hardly a clone. While Mason Hall is elegant and gentle, the research building is more muscular and robust in its expression.
The symmetrical facade and punched windows may lead observers to think it contains classrooms like those constructed long ago, but that's not the case. Inside, it's a highly flexible space for work that might range from creating computer models of the beating heart to advancing computerized speech recognition to programming robots to assist in surgery. To accommodate researchers, walls may move, equipment can be rewired and chairs in hall lounges can be rearranged to suit impromptu gatherings.
Devotees of modern architecture may be troubled that the exterior of the "comp-sci" building doesn't do more to indicate what's happening inside. A modern approach would be to create a building whose form directly follows function. But that is where Hopkins and Shepley Bulfinch made a deliberate effort to draw from the "core language" of the campus, designing the exteriors to fit in with Homewood first and then tailoring the interiors to meet the needs of the users.
"What goes on inside the building determines what goes on the inside," Nelson said. But on the outside, "we're making buildings to build the campus."
This is a relatively conservative approach to campus-making, like requiring elementary school students to wear uniforms so no one draws too much attention. But for an institution with a strong architectural legacy to build on, as Hopkins has at Homewood, it makes sense. It's especially logical for a new quadrangle that will house several academic departments, because it unifies the setting and puts the university as a whole above any individual division or program.
This does not mean that academic buildings should be interchangeable. The visitors center would not be a good science building, and the science building would not be a good visitors center. But both make strong additions to the Homewood campus, and that was the objective.
With the Decker Quadrangle, Hopkins has learned a valuable lesson: Planners can let the interiors of new buildings be as different as they need to be. But the university stands to benefit most when the outsides clearly say "Hopkins."
ed.gunts@baltsun.com
Homewood landmarks
Homewood (1801) : The elegant Federal-period residence of Charles Carroll Jr. and, eventually, the inspiration for most of the architecture on the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus. The building later served as the first site of Gilman School and as university offices. It is now a National Historic Landmark and a museum.
Gilman Hall (1915)
: The first major academic building on campus and now the home of the university's humanities departments.
Alumni Memorial Residence I (1923)
: The first residence hall, named in honor of Johns Hopkins alumni who died in World War I.
Levering Hall (1929)
: Originally a YMCA to serve Johns Hopkins students and now a dining facility and headquarters for students' community-service programs, among other uses.
Milton S. Eisenhower Library (1964)
: Consolidated access to books that had been scattered in departmental libraries across campus. The library provides travelers driving up North Charles Street a "signature" view of the campus.
The Newton H. White Jr. Athletic Center (1965)
: An expansion of earlier athletic facilities including a gymnasium built in 1934. Flanked by Homewood Field and O'Connor Recreation Center.
Garland Hall (1971)
: The central administration building. Sits at the opposite end of the new Decker Quadrangle from Mason Hall.
Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy (1990)
: The largest building on the campus at 238,000 square feet. Named for its principal donor, Michael Bloomberg, now mayor of New York.
The Alonzo G. and Virginia G. Decker Quadrangle (2007)
: A $78 million, 9-acre addition containing Mason Hall, the Computational Science and Engineering Building and the 604-space South Garage, covered by a 75,000-square-foot "green" roof.
[ SOURCE: THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY]