The Brody Learning Commons at Johns Hopkins University, which has been packed since its doors opened last August, has something big to celebrate this week: LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council. It’s the first new construction on the school’s Homewood campus to earn this distinction.

The Learning Commons’ sustainable strategies include:

Managing solar gain: Heat gain and loss from the glass curtain wall system was combated by high-performance glass, automated interior shades, and perimeter (hydronic) heating and cooling.
Energy efficiency: While the under-floor air distribution system ...[more]

The robotics lab at Johns Hopkins’ School of Computer Science and Engineering gets a shout-out in the January 17 issue of Time magazine. The article, “Where the jobs are,” discusses the sectors for job growth in the current economy. Johns Hopkins has established training programs to better match the skills of Baltimore residents with the requirement of the sophisticated bioengineering jobs now being created.

The photo in the article shows Professor Russ Taylor’s robotics lab at Hackermann Hall on Johns Hopkins Homewood campus. The building, with its open bays ...[more]

BALTIMORE, MD – The green roof of the Decker Quadrangle at Johns Hopkins University will be on show April 29 on a walking tour offered as part of the sixth annual Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities conference in Baltimore. The tour, “Midtown Baltimore by Foot”, will take conference participants on a two-mile walk through Johns Hopkins’ Homewood campus and the adjoining Remington neighborhood.

One of the largest green roofs in the state of Maryland, the 75,000 sf grassy quadrangle is a defining element of Johns Hopkins’ Homewood campus while screening a 604-space parking garage beneath. The Quadrangle and adjacent Computational Science Building and Mason Hall were completed last fall and ...[more]

Baltimore, MD – Amid fireworks and gala celebration, The Johns Hopkins University dedicated the Decker Quadrangle on the school’s Homewood campus today.

The $77 million project, under construction since 2005, includes Mason Hall, with a visitors’ center and admissions office, the 75,000 s.f. interdisciplinary Computational Science and Engineering Building and the 604-space South Garage, an underground structure covered by the grassy lawn of the Quad. The design of the complex reestablishes Homewood’s distinctive architectural style.

The Decker Quadrangle honors the late Alonzo Decker Jr., longtime chairman and CEO of Black & Decker Corp. and former Hopkins trustee, and his wife Virginia. Mason Hall is named in honor of Raymond A. “Chip” ...[more]

Johns Hopkins marked a milestone in the completion of the Brody Learning Commons with a May 9 topping-off ceremony. The symbolic last steel beam, bearing hundreds of signatures of members of the Hopkins community, was hoisted into place at the end of the event.

Think you know what goes on here? Look again. Step inside Hackerman Hall, home to Johns Hopkins’ Computational Sciences program and a remarkable intellectual crossroads.