Dave Alexander, Oct 17
Johns Hopkins University’s new Bloomberg Student Center overflowed with energy and activity Thursday during its grand opening celebration, its sun-splashed space brimming with conversation, camaraderie, and curiosity.
Hundreds gathered in the soaring, multi-tiered living room space for a program that began with a montage of student performances highlighting the building’s many features and amenities
JHU President Ron Daniels walked to the podium to the sounds of the Talking Heads’ “This Must Be the Place”—a song, he said, he had long imagined hearing in the building’s massive atrium and also a subtle acknowledgement that, after 150 years and a few false starts, the university finally has what generations of Hopkins students have long sought—a place wholly devoted to student life.
“This morning, at the dawn of our 150th year, we are here thanks to the extraordinary generosity of our alumni and friends, many of whom are with us today, and to the leadership of the building’s namesake, Mike Bloomberg,” Daniels said. “This constellation of supporters has together turned our students’ long-harbored dream into a reality.
“This is the place that will bring together students from all walks of life to perform, create, break bread, and let their imaginations soar, as the Talking Heads say, with their ‘feet on the ground, their head in the sky.'”
The Bloomberg Student Center—named for JHU alum Michael R. Bloomberg, Engr ’64, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the 108th mayor of New York City, in recognition of his extraordinary commitment to supporting students across Hopkins—was purposefully designed to meet the evolving needs of the Hopkins student community, creating spaces devoted to fostering connections and engagement.
The 150,000-square-foot building includes a state-of-the-art food hall featuring local vendors, a pub and coffee bar, a flexible 250-seat performance venue, a central atrium with open seating, dance studios, club meeting rooms, recording studios, flexible gathering places, a digital media center, and an esports lounge.
The building embodies the spirit of student opportunity, access, and excellence championed by Daniels and bolstered by Bloomberg, most notably via his historic gift to the university of $1.8 billion in support of undergraduate financial aid in 2018 and his $1 billion gift to expand financial aid for JHU medical and graduate students in 2024.
“Classes are important, but it’s the people and the relationships and the experiences that have a lasting effect,” Bloomberg said during his remarks Thursday. “Meeting people and discovering new things and debating new ideas and old ideas—that’s what makes college so special and so formative. And campuses need places where that can happen.”
Read more: https://hub.jhu.edu/2025/10/17/bloomberg-student-center-grand-opening-celebration/
