The center is composed of three buildings housing visual art and computer rooms, a dance studio, student offices, a black box theater, individual and group music practice rooms, and a café. Art studios open directly onto terraces. Large windows permit views into ground level dance studios. A brilliant green ceiling reflects light from a hidden skylight to a café below. Clerestory windows bring natural light to the student offices. The three structures are containers of life and light and the triangulated plan lets people see other people working, creating a visual community.
The buildings are cut into the existing slope of the site and act as retaining walls to create a sunken, sheltered courtyard. This is the heart of the project and serves as a place of passage, gathering, study, and meeting. The roofs of the buildings that form the courtyard are accessible terraces. A series of ramps and stairways connect the plaza and terrace levels as well as the Center to the Hopkins campus beyond. By cutting the buildings into the ground the strong presence of the wooded knoll and the existing traditional architecture is retained. The siting preserves many existing trees and new plant materials in the lower level courtyard and on the upper level terraces enhance the connection to the surrounding landscape.
Brick is the dominant material, creating a conversation with the campus buildings while expressing a new identity without destroying character. Narrow glass boxes sit delicately on top of brick bases. At night the glass volumes illuminate the terrace and the courtyard is lit by the glow of the spaces and the activities within. (TWBTA)