Building expansion speaks loudly to the bright future of research and learning at Johns Hopkins Nursing
Text by Steve St. Angelo
We can’t say we weren’t warned: The virtual tours, teasing images, countless email updates, town halls, and dispatches from people on the ground have been as clear as the glass walls of the new Pinkard Building addition at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing (JHSON).
This structure is going to blow minds wide open.
That’s a very good thing for the nation’s No. 1 graduate school of nursing, of course. But it might take our eyes and our brains a moment to adjust.
First, it’s big, with an additional 66,000 square feet bringing the total school space to 167,000. There are spaces both intimate and roomy for every manner of study, collaboration, inspiration, and innovation as well as self-care and contemplation.
The classrooms range from 40 seats up to 220, and there are 11 new ones—all constructed for maximum flexibility to tailor the learning to the nursing cohort. The entire building is equipped with advanced classroom and conferencing technology, including MediaSite lecture capturing systems, fixed and mobile video conferencing, and advanced web conferencing technology.
There are 21 new meeting spaces to accommodate all brainstorming, planning, or celebration needs and desires. And the new Leona B. Carpenter Conference Center will allow for larger, more interdisciplinary events with colleagues locally and globally. (The original Carpenter Room will provide an extended space for meetings and events.)
There are gorgeous and thoughtfully designed study and research suites dedicated to Dean Patricia Davidson and Dean Emerita Martha Hill; other spaces carry names of generous donors or those of other distinguished nurses past and present. The Office of the Dean and the new Evelyn Spiro Dean’s Conference Room will provide space for leaders to engage and features a balcony overlooking East Baltimore perfect for special events.
[Welcome to the Neighborhood: Rooms Named for Where Students, Faculty Live and Work.]
Taken together, it’s breathtaking. But we knew all of this was coming.
News that hasn’t been shared in this space before: The building is finished. (Sure, there are minor nips and tucks to be signed off on here and there, signage to install, and a gargantuan video wall to program with content by and about JHSON.) Students have returned and are working, studying, and chilling in a COVID-safe environment while most staff and faculty continue to commute virtually.
To those faculty and staff, to JHSON alumni (many who studied to the hum and wail of construction), to online students and those whose meet-ups at JHSON are few and far between, to those generous donors who made the project possible, and to those local and global collaborators, welcome to the new Pinkard Building.