School of Nursing hosts virtual groundbreaking and tour of new planned facilities

The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing has virtually broken ground on a $45 million expansion and renovation of its current Anne M. Pinkard building on the university's East Baltimore campus. The school showcased a virtual tour of the 65,810-square-foot design geared toward strengthening research, graduate level education, and community engagement during a special screening and dinner Wednesday.

"This is an incredibly exciting time in the history of our school and an even more momentous step into the future of nursing education," says Patricia Davidson, dean of the School of Nursing. "We wanted a groundbreaking that was non-traditional to represent the contemporary look and feel of our new space and show how the building will expand our scholarship opportunities, innovation, and intellectual footprint across the world."

Designed by the architectural firms of William Rawn Associates and Hord Coplan Macht, Inc., the new building will be flexible, dynamic, and future-oriented, while also honoring the school's long history of preparing nurse leaders. The transformed and reimagined educational area includes open spaces, flexible learning classrooms, a more prominent entrance, and expansive glass surfaces.

Other features include:

• The Carpenter Conference Center will accommodate larger, more interdisciplinary events with colleagues locally and globally
• An open and spacious first floor "Hub" with areas for informal meeting, studying, teamwork, and an eatery open to the community
• The preserved courtyard and green space in Baltimore will be highly visible from the new addition
• A new Think Tank space for current and emerging centers and institutes to collaborate with local and international partners and develop research, clinical expertise, and technologies
• The new Martha Hill Interprofessional Research Commons, which will house the school's specialty centers in aging, administration, cardiovascular care, community health, global initiatives, and mental health and give faculty and PhD students a collaborative workspace to focus on research, policy, and advocacy

The school has received funding support from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation of Philadelphia and the France-Merrick Foundation of Baltimore, among other foundations and organizations, and is scheduled to officially begin construction in Fall 2018.

"This is an investment in our campus, the economy and health of our city, and importantly in outstanding student experiences for years to come," Davidson says. "We are building to inspire, innovate, impact, and change the world."