Our Campus
The Bloomberg School Campus
The Bloomberg’s School’s first building at 615 N. Wolfe Street in Baltimore, Maryland, opened its doors on October 22, 1926, ten years after its official founding in 1916. The first classes the School offered were held on October 1, 1918, in a physics lab on W. Monument Street.
The Wolfe Street Building has evolved and now covers an entire square block, providing over 870,000 gross square feet that includes offices, classrooms, auditoriums, laboratories, recording studios, and common spaces for gathering. In addition to the Wolfe Street Building, the School also operates in additional properties in and beyond East Baltimore.
Several exciting campus expansion and enhancement projects are currently underway.
Reimagining Our Campus in Support of Our Goals
After our strategic plan was published, we were provided with an extraordinary opportunity to invest in a reenvisioning of our physical campus.
A new signature building on the corner of McElderry and Washington streets will bring the core activities of all 10 academic departments together in one interconnected location, accommodate future growth, and provide opportunities to reengineer how we work together to further our mission.
Groundbreaking took place in June 2024, and construction is projected to wrap by the end of 2026.
The images above, courtesy of Hopkins Architects, show artist renderings of design concepts for the new Bloomberg School building. The planning of the new South Building is guided by four key priorities, which are rooted in our overall strategy for the School. We will build physical space that:
- Fosters interdisciplinary, cross-departmental collaborations.
- Enhances our teaching for tomorrow’s learners.
- Provides a door to the community that will naturally extend our partnerships.
- Cultivates a diverse, inclusive, efficient, and sustainable environment.
The new 250,000-square-foot facility will support the Bloomberg School's mission through dynamic workspaces, state-of-the-art classrooms, and a variety of study, collaboration, and event spaces.
Wolfe Street Renovations
The Wolfe Street Building is also continuously being improved. A recent East Wing infrastructure project included wet lab renovations and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing improvements. Renovation of existing BSL-2 and expansion of BSL-3 labs is expected to be completed by 2027. JHU also hopes to explore options for additional renovations that will further modernize and optimize current Bloomberg School spaces and better integrate the Wolfe Street Building with the South Building.
Our Broader Evolving Campus
The Johns Hopkins University campus more broadly is also undergoing exciting changes that will provide new physical spaces for the Bloomberg School community.
Hopkins Bloomberg Center
JHU’s new majestic building at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., opened in August 2023. It features modern, configurable spaces that will heighten collaboration between trusted academic experts, global leaders and policymakers, and the next generation of innovators and leaders.
The Planetary Health Alliance and Bloomberg School’s Department of Health Policy and Management, Center for Gun Violence Solutions, and Center for Health Security are among those with a presence there.
Life Sciences Corridor
A Life Sciences Corridor in East Baltimore, anchored by a new Life Sciences Building on the west end and a renovated Basic Sciences Quad on the east end, will create a new, modernized ecosystem for foundational, basic biomedical research at JHU.
“Technology hubs and scientific neighborhoods” spanning schools, departments, divisions, and programs, will broaden collaboration across the University and bolster the pace, scope, and impact of research.
Design and construction of the new building, which will be located on the site of the current Hampton House, Reed Hall, and Cooley Center, is anticipated to be ongoing from September 2023 to December 2028.
Hampton House Transition
The Hampton House Building at 624 N. Broadway in East Baltimore was until spring 2024 home to three of the ten academic departments at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. These departments will be moving into the Bloomberg School’s South Building when it is complete, and first to temporary space to allow for construction of the Life Sciences Building.
The Johns Hopkins University identified interim spaces on or near the East Baltimore campus to house these departments and their research and teaching activities before the new building opens. The Center for Immunization Research relocated to a new, permanent home on the East Baltimore campus as part of this transition. A Hampton House Relocation Committee of Bloomberg School faculty, students, and staff was established to advise on the transition.
