Bloomberg Center at Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD

This world-class student center establishes a new standard for student engagement and mass timber construction, featuring complex structural systems supported by Western Archrib spruce beams and columns.

This world-class student center serves as a social engagement hub for the university community. Featuring a food hall, studio theater, multi-purpose rooms, and open lounge areas, the facility provides enhanced spaces for student engagement, connection, and community enrichment.The design emerged from an international design competition. The building features a series of 29 cascading, stepped roof planes framed with mass timber panels supported by glue-laminated timber beams and columns. Key design elements include extensive two-way cantilevered roof planes, timber panels with integrated acoustic treatment, and a transparent façade wrapping around the structure. Lateral forces are resisted by a mixture of concrete shear walls, cable-braced frames, and cross-laminated timber shear walls.One of the most complex mass timber projects completed in the eastern United States, the center establishes a new standard for student experience in higher education facilities.

We are proud to have Western Archrib spruce beams and columns in this project.

Design team

DowelLam - DLT Manufacturer

StructureCraft - Timber design assist/structural engineer

Western Archrib - Glulam

BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) - Architect

Clark Construction Group - General Contractor

Knippers Helbig - Structural Engineer

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