Malone Hall, a new building meant to house operations of the Whiting School of Engineering (WSE), is quickly moving towards completion.
According to Abigail Lattes from the office of interim dean of the WSE Andrew Douglas, the project is currently under budget and ahead of schedule. Planned to open in the summer of 2014, construction should end that spring, with an official opening planned for the fall of that year.
Malone Hall is nestled in the southeast corner of Alonzo G. and Virginia G. Decker Quad between Hackerman Hall and Mason Hall at the southern edge of Homewood campus. Made possible through a 2010 gift of $30 million to the Whiting School of Engineering from John C. Malone, a Hopkins alumnus for whom the building is named, Malone Hall will be the newest addition to the campus.
“[The purpose of Malone Hall is] to create flexible space that will enable the Whiting School, often in collaboration with other Johns Hopkins University divisions and external partners, to tackle some of the most critical issues facing society today — from health care and national security to sustainability,” Abigail Lattes from the office of Andrew Douglas, interim dean of the WSE, said.
Malone Hall will be the home to the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute (HEMI), the Johns Hopkins Systems Institute, the Homewood base for the Individualized Health Initiative, the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute (JHUISI) and the Department of Computer Science.
With a total size of 69,000 square-feet, Malone Hall will have 30 faculty members, 116 graduate students and four visiting HEMI researchers.
“Malone Hall still has some potential classroom space opportunities and WSE is working with the registrar’s office to determine what types of rooms are needed,” Lattes said.
John C. Malone graduated from Hopkins in 1964 with an M.S. in Industrial Management and received his PhD in Operations Research in 1969 from Hopkins. Chairman of Liberty Media Corp. and Liberty Global Inc., Malone is currently a multi-billionaire and the largest private landowner in the USA, owning over two-million acres. He is a well known philanthropist, donating to Hopkins and Yale University. John Malone is scheduled to join the Homewood community in the building’s opening.
The distinguishing features of the Hall include many flexible multipurpose spaces with easily converted partition walls, a glass exterior on the east side to maximize the use of sunlight and a storm water management system to include a pond to capture rainwater.
For the first three floors, all air distribution, electrical and data systems are located under the floor rather than in the walls, allowing for easy floor plan adjustments as needs evolve. Within the lower level HEMI labs, there will be a tower from which engineers will be able to drop extremely heavy objects from varying heights to better understand how materials break. It will also include a blasting room where researchers can investigate high velocity impact.
The building was designed for LEED Silver certification. However, with energy-efficient day-lighting, air distribution and mechanical systems, as well as very efficient waterproofing and insulation, the university hopes Malone Hall will receive Gold.
Many freshmen Hopkins students are not well informed of the construction project.
“I don’t remember seeing any construction,” freshman Maria Hazbon said in response to a question about the project.
This inconspicuousness is intentional.
“We have worked hard not to impact the student body. No classroom or quad space was taken away to construct Malone Hall, so other than a few noisy days last spring when they were digging the footers, the impact has been extremely minimal,” Lattes said. “During construction of the colonnade connecting Hackerman Hall to Malone Hall, we will need to reroute some foot traffic at the south end of Hackerman.”
This expansion project is only the most recent in the list of additions and construction projects within and around the campus during the past several years. Brody Learning Commons, the four-story addition to the side of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, and the Undergraduate Teaching Lab and Biology Research Wing, the 105,000-square-foot addition off of Mudd Hall, each were major projects completed in 2012 and 2013, respectively.
Although not a University-sponsored project, the Charles Street reconstruction continues on the eastern border of campus.
