Snapshot: Rockwell Group and Ennead Rehabilitate The Newseum's Former Digs To Academic Ends

Washington, D.C.

Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Photo © Alan Karchmer/OTTO

Washington, D.C.’s Newseum was, when opened in 2008, not long for this world—it shuttered in 2019, when Johns Hopkins University purchased the building. A comprehensive rehabilitation followed, led by Rockwell Group and Ennead, the original architect, and SmithGroup, the architect of record. The 435,000-square-foot Bloomberg Center at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue is anchored by the School of Advanced International Studies and includes 38 classrooms—no two the same size—and myriad group and individual spaces. For Rockwell Group, openness was key to the project—the firm took advantage of the existing six-story atrium to introduce a cascading series of gathering areas and put glazing on the interior face of each classroom. At the entrance, redbrick paving, the same found on the school’s historic Baltimore campus, welcomes students to the capital.

Matthew Marani is Special Sections Editor at Architectural Record. Previously, he served as Program Manager at The Architect’s Newspaper and has several years of experience as a freelance writer specializing in urban planning, historic preservation, and architectural technology. Matthew is a born and raised New Yorker and holds an MSc in Architectural Conservation from the University of Edinburgh.