The students have moved in, the facility hums with
midsemester activity, and now the university will
officially dedicate Charles Commons, the new residential
and retail complex located in Charles Village.
The event, to be held on Saturday during Family
Weekend, will honor the many people who played a pivotal
role in the facility's creation, including donors,
university administration, community representatives,
architects, developers and dozens of JHU staff members. It
will also celebrate the much-anticipated grand opening of
Barnes & Noble Johns Hopkins, the new university bookstore
that will replace the one located in the basement of Gilman
Hall.
Charles Commons, a two-wing, 313,000-square-foot
facility located on the corner of North Charles and 33rd
streets, officially opened on Sept. 1, when it welcomed its
first residents, 618 Homewood upperclassmen.
The 29,000-square-foot Barnes & Noble bookstore on the
facility's ground floor is set to open Oct. 21. The
two-story space will feature general retail services
— books, magazines, a coffee bar and Johns Hopkins
paraphernalia — on the main floor and textbooks for
Homewood courses on the second floor. Johns Hopkins-themed
murals and notable quotes will decorate the entire store,
which will stock close to 500,000 books and magazine titles
and have a complete children's department.
Paula Burger, dean for undergraduate education, said
the bookstore is expected to become an anchor for the
area's retail services and a hub of social activity for the
community.
"The bookstore will certainly add to the quality of
life here, not just for Johns Hopkins students but those
living in the immediate area who are very excited to have
such an amenity in their community now," Burger said.
The Charles Commons site was master-planned by Ayers
Saint Gross, which also conceived the building's early
architectural design concepts. Design Collective provided
the final design for the building, whose host of amenities
include a dining hall, music rooms, a library, a high-tech
laundry facility, common kitchens, lounges, study areas and
a fitness room.
Burger said that the additional spaces, many of which
will be named and dedicated on Saturday, were made possible
by generous financial support from individual donors,
including alumni and several parents of past and present
Johns Hopkins students. She said the university realized
early on in the project that it needed additional funding
in order to make Charles Commons a truly dynamic and
multifunctional facility.
"We had a significant gap to bridge from the room
revenue we would receive to the overall cost of the
building. We determined that to not include the social and
common spaces would cut the heart out of the project, and
so we made a commitment to engage private philanthropic
support," Burger said. "We were very gratified by the
response from donors who were willing to help us fulfill
our vision and make this truly handsome building a
reality."
To date, the university has raised $6.4 million toward
the $10 million goal for the Charles Commons project.
Specifically, the JHU Parents Fund, whose annual
campaign supports student life initiatives and
extracurricular activities, has pledged $2 million to the
project over eight years. Donors who give $5,000 or more in
a given year will be honored on a donor wall in the
building's 33rd Street lobby.
The Charles Commons dining hall, quickly becoming the
top hangout on campus, has been named Nolan's on 33rd in
recognition of a generous gift from Johns Hopkins alum
David Nolan '71 and his family. Nolan is the father of
Justin Nolan '04 and Adrienne Nolan '07. The facility,
housed on the third floor of Charles Commons, features not
only a diverse menu but a dramatic fireplace, billiards
tables, a performance stage and informal study areas.
In honor of a gift from Jim Winter '70 and his wife,
Susan, the university will dedicate the Winter Library, a
study space on the building's first floor. The Winters
previously supported a practice room in the Mattin
Center.
The Batoff Lobby, Charles Commons' stunning Charles
Street entrance, was named for Steve and Carol Batoff '76,
whose gift honors their sons, Justin Batoff '07 and Jeremy
Batoff '09.
A gift from Tseng Jan and Kayo Hsu made possible the
Hsu Music Practice Room on the third floor. The Hsus are
the parents of Annie Hsu '05 and Jenny Hsu '09.
Two of Charles Commons' group study rooms, which are
located throughout the facility, have also been named in
honor of parents: John and Denise Ward, parents of Alison
Ward '06, and Joe and Elizabeth Mandato, parents of Sarah
Mandato '04.
Parents made several other significant financial
gifts, a portion of which went to purchase original artwork
for the facility. The pieces, many of which were selected
by Burger, were chosen to depict the use of the space where
they were hung or Baltimore City. For example, a portrait
of a young woman playing the violin was hung outside the
music rooms, and a painting of the Domino Sugar factory in
the Inner Harbor hangs in the Winter Library.
The dedication ceremony will be held at 10:30 a.m. in
the facility's third-floor ballroom. Following the
ceremony, tours of Charles Commons will be given.