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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.

Photo © Alan Karchmer/OTTO, click to enlarge.