The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing formerly occupied three buildings on the East Baltimore campus—the Pinkard Building, and Student and School of Nursing Houses. Designed and built in the early 1990’s, the Pinkard Building is a five-story facility that serves as the central learning and work space for School of Nursing students and faculty. The building was designed for a significantly smaller student population and at a time when the school offered undergraduate education. The smaller, residential-scale Student and School of Nursing Houses provide student study and lounge space, and house administrative offices, respectively.
HCM provided programming and planning/design services for the new School of Nursing. The school is transitioning from an undergraduate program to a graduate and PhD nursing program. The goal of the project was to explore innovative space planning to maximize space utilization, improve learning and research, accommodate expanded central student services, minimize long-term operating and maintenance expenses and increase overall efficiency within the school. The project also included a complete facilities assessment for all three of the school’s buildings to document the existing conditions of the buildings and systems and project short and long-term deferred maintenance expenses.
Through collaborative stakeholder engagement involving visioning and goal-setting exercises, staff interviews, student intercept activities, and 3d model play, the HCM team identified the following goals for the planning and design of the expanded School of Nursing:
- Provide significant new study/collaboration space
- Create an identifiable hub for the school
- Expand conferencing facilities
- Improve learning spaces
- Improve facilities for research
- Replace the residential houses
Through integrated planning, the team combined quantitative and qualitative hands-on analyses to develop a new program of space and explored the desired student experiences with the School of Nursing. The result of the effort produced a building that is student-centric, more compatible with the pedagogy, and increases the efficiency of the building and operations. The project included the demolition of the School of Nursing House and, in its place, the construction of a 42,000 sf addition.
New program spaces included open and enclosed study space for students, a café, reimagined administrative and faculty spaces to encourage cross-institutional collaboration, an expanded conference and event space, new centers for research and new, technology-rich learning spaces. The north end of the Pinkard Building was renovated and clad in a more transparent skin to allow the building to enliven the street and create a welcoming learning environment.
Designed in collaboration with William Rawn Associates.
Baltimore Chapter AIA Design Excellence Award
To learn more about the graphic design services Hord Coplan Macht provided for this project, click here.
