Johns Hopkins Student Center

Baltimore, MD
Johns Hopkins Student Center

structural engineering, facade design  Services

Bjarke Ingels Group, Shepley Bulfinch  Architect

A new campus social hub with mass timber structure and 29 cascading photovoltaic roofs

Project

The Student Center is a new hub for student life at Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood Campus, providing 143,000 SF of space for social engagement and student resources with a food hall, 200-seat theater, multi-purpose rooms and lounge spaces. The building acts as a new gateway to the campus, with a series of highly transparent, timber-framed volumes with stepped roof planes cascading down the sloped site towards Charles Street. knippershelbig was structural engineer of record and provided structural design and full envelope consultation for the project for all design phases and construction.

Mass timber roof structure on multiple levels of reinforced concrete structure base structure

Design of Timber and Concrete Structure
The roof of the terraced mass timber structure is made from dowel laminated timber (DLT) panels up to 280 mm thickness, designed to achieve cantilevers on the southeastern side of the building of up to 4.5 m. The visible underside of the ceiling is further enhanced with foam strips between the wood lamellae to achieve a sound absorption coefficient of 0.7. To form the roof diaphragm, the DLT is complemented with approximately 20 mm thick plywood panels on top. Glulam beams span the 8.5 m to 21 m large volumes of the building, supported by glulam columns. The horizontal bracing of the roofs is achieved through the interaction of three reinforced concrete cores, eight cross-laminated timber wall panels, and several cross-bracings made of steel tension rods. Beneath the wooden structure is a steel-reinforced concrete structure of up to four levels. The concrete structure consists of column and wall footings on bedrock, a slab on grade, conventional flat ceilings, and concrete cores. The approximately 18 m wide theater area is covered by reinforced concrete T-beam slabs. The theater's load-bearing structure is realized using the "Box in Box" principle with a separate steel construction inside the concrete structure.

A custom-made, elaborately designed transparent building envelope

Envelope design
The crisp, highly transparent glazed envelope belies its complex design, which resolves rigorous technical and visual requirements with the unique building geometry and intricate interfaces of façade and timber structure. Stick-built glazed facades use custom laser welded steel mullions spanning up to 30’ with minimal sightlines, while accommodating complex differential movements between the interconnected volumes. Clerestory glazing draws daylight deep inside, and roof overhangs provide shading, with varying overhang depths around the building informed by solar radiation analysis. Bird-friendly glazing is used throughout. Opaque walls are clad in aluminum rainscreen panels with a diffuse mirror anodized finish. Careful planning of roofing systems and drainage minimizes roof edge sightlines while avoiding visible plumbing below interior exposed DLT slabs. Ballasted PV systems form a sleek surface across the floating roof planes

Structural analysis of the interacting timber-, steel-, concrete structure in close coordination with façade design

Key aspects
Special attention in the structural analysis was given to the lateral force resisting system, involving reinforced concrete cores, steel tension rods, and cross-laminated timber walls, especially under consideration of the stiffness and load distribution. Additionally, the long-term creep and shrinkage of the glulam beams needed special attention. These factors also played a crucial role in defining the precamber of the glulam beams in coordination with the façade fabrication.

Gallery

Project data

Client The Johns Hopkins University

Architect Bjarke Ingels Group, Shepley Bulfinch

Collaborators StructureCraft, Clark Construction, Lindner

Project data Gross floor area 13.935 m²
Span 21 m

Services structural engineering, facade design

Awards WBC Craftmanship Award, 2025