The Johns Hopkins mascot used to be the blue jay. Now, it?s the crane.
If you didn?t live through all the construction over the past few years at the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus, that joke, dropped by University President William Brody, would be a little hard to visualize over the finished product ? a new green quad flanked by Georgian brick and marble pillars.
The contrast to what used to be there is striking.
“When I came here, we had asphalt roads all through the campus, cars driving through, parking all over. It really was a noisy campus,” Brody said. “We had this grand plan to move all the cars off campus, replace the asphalt with something water-pervious like brick. I said at the time that it was a 25-year master plan that will be my successor?s successor?s project. Through the generosity of some of our board, we?re working on the last building now.”
That would be Mason Hall for Undergraduate Admissions. It?s the first building visible when climbing out of the new underground parking garage, and it also houses the university?s first visitors center.
Another new addition, the Computational Sciences and Engineering Building, will house interdisciplinary work in the life sciences, mathematics, computer science and engineering.
“Altogether, this Decker Quad project is a new front door to the Homewood campus, and it has been designed to be welcoming,” university spokesman Dennis O?Shea said.
Mason Hall is named after Raymond A. “Chip” Mason, trustee emeritus and former chairman of the university?s board of trustees.
Behind Mason Hall sits the Alonzo G. and Virginia G. Decker Quadrangle, named after the longtime chairman and CEO of Black and Decker Corp., who served 30 years on the board of trustees and died in 2002.
The project began in July 2005.
