Perkins+Will and The Johns Hopkins Hospital Facilities and Design staff designed a new 1.6-million-square-foot complex for the academic medical center and the nation’s top-ranked hospital.
Opening May 1, 2012, the facility will serve as a new gateway to the medical campus while transforming the healthcare experience. Distinguished by its curved shape, articulated forms, bold color, gardens, and natural light, the Johns Hopkins Hospital includes two 12-story towers for children’s and adult healthcare that rise from an eight-story base of the structure.
The design for the new clinical building provides a clear identity for each tower composed into a unified whole. The complex includes 560 private patient rooms, 33 state-of-the-art operating rooms, and expansive new adult and pediatric emergency departments. Its integrated healthcare planning and design supports both the most advanced medical technology and the latest evidence-based strategies for ideal patient-oriented care.
The curvilinear glass and brick building, accented with colorful panels, serves as the new front door to the hospital and the entire 14-acre campus. The architecture guides people to the entrance where a canopy extends the length of the entrance, sheltering the emergency and hospital entryways. A landscaped entry plaza, the size of a football field, leads the way into a two-story sky-lit adult tower lobby with a meditation garden as well as the soaring four-story children’s lobby.??
In a rare approach, from the outset of the facility’s planning and design, a multidisciplinary project partnership was established for a highly interactive process of creative exchange. This unique collaboration included Perkins+Will, artists from across the country, an art curator, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Johns Hopkins staff and leadership. As a result of this alliance, the building now incorporates over 500 works of art created for the facility by more than 70 artists, as well as numerous healing gardens, to create a dignified, uplifting, and nurturing environment. ??
A key design feature of the building, created in collaboration with Brooklyn-based artist Spencer Finch, is a shimmering glass curtain wall that covers much of the building’s exterior. Perkins+Will worked closely with Finch and the project partnership over many months to integrate the architecture with the artist’s concept. The result is a multi-colored two-layered fritted glass façade that incorporates Finch’s unique approach to color. Its effect moderates the Baltimore light by day and transforms the building into a glowing composition of color and light by night. BD+C
Related Stories
| Aug 8, 2022
Mass timber and net zero design for higher education and lab buildings
When sourced from sustainably managed forests, the use of wood as a replacement for concrete and steel on larger scale construction projects has myriad economic and environmental benefits that have been thoroughly outlined in everything from academic journals to the pages of Newsweek.
AEC Tech | Aug 8, 2022
The technology balancing act
As our world reopens from COVID isolation, we are entering back into undefined territory – a form of hybrid existence.
Legislation | Aug 5, 2022
D.C. City Council moves to require net-zero construction by 2026
The Washington, D.C. City Council unanimously passed legislation that would require all new buildings and substantial renovations in D.C. to be net-zero construction by 2026.
Cultural Facilities | Aug 5, 2022
A time and a place: Telling American stories through architecture
As the United States enters the year 2026, it will commence celebrating a cycle of Sestercentennials, or 250th anniversaries, of historic and cultural events across the land.
Sponsored | | Aug 4, 2022
Brighter vistas: Next-gen tools drive sustainability toward net zero line
New technologies, innovations, and tools are opening doors for building teams interested in better and more socially responsible design.
| Aug 4, 2022
Newer materials for green, resilient building complicate insurance underwriting
Insurers can’t look to years of testing on emerging technology to assess risk.
Sustainability | Aug 4, 2022
To reduce disease and fight climate change, design buildings that breathe
Healthy air quality in buildings improves cognitive function and combats the spread of disease, but its implications for carbon reduction are perhaps the most important benefit.
Multifamily Housing | Aug 4, 2022
Faculty housing: A powerful recruitment tool for universities
Recruitment is a growing issue for employers located in areas with a diminishing inventory of affordable housing.
Multifamily Housing | Aug 3, 2022
7 tips for designing fitness studios in multifamily housing developments
Cortland’s Karl Smith, aka “Dr Fitness,” offers advice on how to design and operate new and renovated gyms in apartment communities.
Building Materials | Aug 3, 2022
Shawmut CEO Les Hiscoe on coping with a shaky supply chain in construction
BD+C's John Caulfield interviews Les Hiscoe, CEO of Shawmut Design and Construction, about how his firm keeps projects on schedule and budget in the face of shortages, delays, and price volatility.
