

The Johns Hopkins Hospital purchased the former Church Home Hospital and Professional Building south of their East Baltimore medical campus, acquiring an adjacent parking garage in need of repair work and improvements. The existing pedestrian connection between the two structures is difficult and dangerous because a service alley, a substantial drop in grade, and a surface parking lot intervene, separating the garage from the Professional Building. This project proposes direct pedestrian access from the garage to the surface parking lot by way of a new bridge and elevator tower at the northeast corner of the garage. While strictly utilitarian requirements for access and safety drive the design, its location at the corner of the building near the highest point on the site guarantees the elevator and bridge far greater visual importance than the use might otherwise suggest. Standard manufactured products, such as cement board, aluminum bar grating, and exposed concrete are proposed to be used here in a straightforward but considered fashion, helping to elevate the utilitarian to the remarkable.