| Contextual Infrastructure Planning and Design |
| Johns Hopkins Hospital Station Site Restoration/Landscaping |
| By Greg Hoer, Baltimore, Maryland 1-410-385-4146, hoer@pbworld.com
|
| This site restoration project
provided an opportunity to reconstruct a portion of a prominent Baltimore
medical campus to respond to the Metro's extension, a hospital building
expansion program and new pedestrian circulation patterns. |
|
Baltimore Metro's Johns Hopkins Hospital Station is located within
the Broadway median in the center of the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus.
It was constructed in a cut-and-cover method that resulted in an excavation
approximately 21 m (70 feet deep), 21 m wide and 265 m (865 feet)
long. Despite the length of the excavation, nearly 610 m (2,000 linear
feet) of the Broadway roadway and median were affected. This length
of roadway was represented at community meetings by at least six community
groups, various medical center entities, and the city's Planning Department
and Department of Public Works. Numerous meetings and working sessions
were held with these groups throughout the planning and design periods,
thus assuring a very effective public involvement process.
Tremendous coordination occurred during the design and construction
phases of the station to assure the maintenance of the daily activities
at this world-renowned medical facility. Although several blocks of
Broadway were closed for more than five years during construction
activities, well planned maintenance of traffic plans allowed the
estimated 12,000 medical, research and support staff to continue providing
medical services for the approximately 13,000 daily hospital visitors
and patients. PB performed the initial alternatives analysis/draft
environmental impact statement work earlier in the 1980s. Later, in
joint venture, we were responsible for all subsequent planning, engineering,
and construction management for the 1.5 mile extension of the Baltimore
Metro. Our work included much of the preliminary design for the site
restoration/landscaping of the Broadway median in the vicinity of
Johns Hopkins. We later oversaw this work when it was carried out,
serving as subcontractor to the final designer.
Historic
Precedent
The 2.25-km (1.4-mile) -long Broadway median was developed initially
from plans prepared in 1914 by the Olmsted brothers, famous American
landscape architects. The Olmsted design was comprised of a linear
spine walkway that traversed the entire length of the Broadway median.
Elliptical walkways were at the ends of each median block with either
elliptical or circular walkways at the median quarter points and midpoints.
Pedestrians could cross the median at any of these locations. Large
urns were located within each of these elliptical or circular walkways
and large deciduous street trees lined both sides of the median.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the entire length of the Broadway
median was redesigned. This redesign, developed by several landscape
architectural firms under the guidance of multiple city agencies,
established a curved-linear walkway that also traversed the entire
length of the Broadway median. A major new element, however, was the
introduction of low mounds on each side of the walkway. These mounds
were planted with a variety of street trees and flowering trees, and
the walkway was furnished with benches at median ends and midpoints.
A significant amount of this work was financed through the kindness
and generosity of an anonymous donor who sought to enhance the physical
environment of the local residents and medical campus environment.
The Current Design
The introduction of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Station necessitated
the demolition of three blocks of the Broadway median (from Jefferson
Street to East Madison Street) and the construction of north and south
station entrances, two elevator headhouses, a skylight, several intake
and exhaust vent shafts, and two sets of emergency exit structures.
These new construction elements dictated that the median would not
be reconstructed as it existed prior to Metro construction activities.
Early in the preliminary design period we researched the history of
the Broadway median. We began to develop a site plan that would draw
upon the historic precedent established by the Olmsted Brothers, yet
accommodate the physical and mechanical requirements/elements of the
new Metro station and meet new maintenance requirements identified
by the city's Department of Recreation and Parks. The resulting design
incorporated circular and semi-circular shapes at the various vents
and shafts located with the Broadway median and in the pedestrian
environments of the north and south station entrance plazas.
Figure 1: McElderry Plaza features brick pavement and cast-iron
light fixtures |
Figure 2: John Hopkins Hospital Station Plaza and entrance
area feature reclaimed Belgian blocks. |
Figure 3: Green Vase Zelkova tress will grow to form a significant
allee. |
Design Development
Our design development process included multiple design review sessions
with the Mass Transit Administration's engineering and architectural
staffs, as well as the Johns Hopkins Hospital Facilities Design staff.
Sketches were prepared and evaluated for the site restoration and
used as the basis for many discussions that ensued regarding the site
furnishings and landscape plantings. These sketches were then presented
to the community associations that represented the neighborhoods along
Broadway, as well as the Planning Department's Design Advisory Panel.
We incorporated comments received from all of these entities into
the design to assure a functional and aesthetic design that all interested
parties could agree upon. For instance:
- Raised circular planters were designed to
minimize bending/ kneeling requirements to accommodate an elderly
and handicapped population that resided in an adjacent high-rise
building.
- Generously sized paved areas were provided further north on
the median within the pedestrian walkway environment so the residents
living in the adjoining buildings could set up folding chairs
and enjoy the park-like setting.
The most significant element of the site restoration design is McElderry
Plaza (Figure 1). This plaza, located at the intersection of the main
pedestrian corridor on the medial campus (McElderry Street) and the
central pedestrian walkway of the Broadway median, is traversed by
hundreds of pedestrians each day moving between the two sides of the
Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School facilities. It was constructed
with a fully mortared brick paver system and includes cast iron pedestrian
light fixtures.
The south station entrance is immediately south of McElderry Plaza,
and the station skylight is immediately to its north. Both of these
pedestrian spaces are enclosed by a concrete curb/wall that supports
the custom fabricated steel hairpin picket fence. The walking surfaces
for these two elements are constructed of concrete, scored in a two-foot
diagonal module. The area between the picket fence and the roadway's
splashblock is planted with evergreen shrubs and deciduous street
trees.
Particularly noteworthy is the fact that a two-block portion of the
northbound and southbound roadways of Broadway, immediately in front
of the hospital's historic administration building, was reconstructed
with reclaimed Belgian blocks furnished by the city (Figure 2). Inclusion
of this paving material was inspired by the Johns Hopkins Hospital
Facilities Design staff. The intent was to create a vehicular surface
that was not conducive to fast moving traffic, especially in light
of the typical heavy pedestrian traffic.
Certainly the most prominent design element included in the site restoration
is the quadruple row of Green Vase Zelkova trees that line four blocks
along the eastern and western edges of roadway and the two sides of
the median (Figure 3). These trees, though small when planted, already
establish a very strong vertical element. As time passes, one can
expect to witness the development of a significant allée along
these blocks of Broadway. |
|
| Greg Hoer, a Senior Professional Associate,
is a landscape architect in the Baltimore office. He is regularly
part of multidisciplinary design teams for transportation and infrastructure
projects, particularly their site restoration elements, for PB's U.S.
East Coast offices. Greg is the coordinator of the PAN for Architecture
and Urban Design. |
|
