Soon after Baltimore’s Henderson-Hopkins School opened its doors to hundreds of students, the day after New Year’s 2014, it was greeted with resounding critical acclaim across the design community.

The new K–8 public school, with its modern, rust-colored forms, spacious teaching areas, and light-flooded common spaces, was regarded as exemplifying the forefront of 21st-century school design—a model to be replicated. What’s more, the school, operated by Johns Hopkins University in partnership with Morgan State University, and backed by the nonprofit East Baltimore Development Inc., was meant to be a boon for East Baltimore, the crown jewel of a new mixed-income development in one of the city’s most disenfranchised neighborhoods.