JHU Bloomberg Student Center

For nearly 150 years, Johns Hopkins University—renowned globally for innovation and research—needed one key feature of campus life: a dedicated student center. That long-standing wish was finally realized in fall 2025 with the opening of the Bloomberg Student Center, a striking new hub for student life that has quickly garnered international acclaim.

Based on an extensive programming process led by Shepley Bulfinch, the 150,000-square-foot building was designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) with Shepley Bulfinch (executive architect), Rockwell Group (interior design), and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (landscape design). Its mass timber structure, designed by Knippers Helbig (structural engineer), provides a consistent visual design motif combined with sustainable design benefits.

Over a five-year collaboration, Acentech provided designs for acoustics, audiovisual, and telecommunications, which integrate seamlessly with the mass timber, glass, and concrete architecture.

The centerpiece of the building is the multi-level Living Room, which unfolds as one moves through a series of terraces connected by open stairs. This large open space provides attractive social connection points as well as flexible assembly space. A critical design requirement was to achieve inviting acoustics that would encourage students to linger and socialize, which meant including large amounts of acoustical absorption. An overly reverberant environment, all too common in large spaces, can deter social connection by making people feel exposed, and by allowing cacophonous noise buildup at busy times. By using Dowel Laminated Timber (DLT) with sound absorbing material integrated into the structure itself, the design was able to deliver a welcoming acoustic environment while celebrating the exposed wood structure in one sweeping gesture.

The Living Room is surrounded on multiple levels by a range of other spaces for music, dance, theatre, visual arts, gaming, and more. With the exposed wood structure and no ceilings in most spaces, vertical sound isolation was achieved with floating concrete floors. Music and dance spaces are equipped with drapery and other features that the users can extend or retract to adjust the acoustics to their liking. Throughout, we collaborated closely with WSP (MEP engineering) to achieve suitably quiet mechanical systems.

Acentech’s ICT team developed a robust and comprehensive telecommunications infrastructure to support the building’s systems, including wired and wireless networks, lighting, energy management, access control, DAS, and emergency communication systems. The building’s network infrastructure begins with a complex Outside Plant (OSP) system of underground conduit pathways and fiber optic cabling to connect the new building to the campus network in multiple locations on campus. Within the building, and as noted above, along with the AV and other building systems, one of the main challenges was designing the associated pathways and infrastructure to be concealed within the DLT structure. The designs also provide highly-coordinated wireless access throughout the facility, ensuring students have uninterrupted connectivity wherever they are in the building, with carefully placed access points that complement the architecture. The connectivity continues outside the building, with wireless access points strategically integrated with the light poles throughout the site. Cabling and associated conduit pathways were coordinated with the landscaping to accommodate these access points, as well as additional exterior security devices.

The audiovisual systems enrich a majority of the environments within the building, including the eastern main lobby. Upon entering, visitors are greeted at the welcome desk, which boasts a 16’-wide video wall showcasing a rotating stream of campus news, upcoming events, and the latest Johns Hopkins achievements. Additional digital signage throughout the building provides wayfinding support, helping students and visitors orient themselves with ease. Room-scheduling panels outside each space simplify reservations—whether for one of the divisible multipurpose rooms, the gaming lounge, the Student Engagement Hub, or other meeting and huddle spaces. Students can also unwind in the Pub/Café, where they can watch TV while enjoying their favorite beverage, listen to live music, or sit outside on the patio where speakers are integrated into the site lighting to continue the listening experience.

The lively new building is earning much acclaim in architectural design circles*, but more importantly, it has already won the hearts of Johns Hopkins students.

* Click the links below for further reading:

• Metropolis Magazine: Inside and Outside Johns Hopkins’ New Bloomberg Student Center
• Design Bloom: Danish Design Lands in Baltimore with Bloomberg Student Center
• Dezeen: BIG Completes Mass-Timeber “Village of 29 Pavilions” at Johns Hopkins
• ArchDaily: Bloomberg Student Center / BIT + Rockwell Group + Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
• Archinect: BIG and Rockwell Group Complete Mass Timber Student Center for Johns Hopkins University