After almost five years of laborious planning, construction and $77 million in spending, the Alonzo G. and Virginia G. Decker Quadrangle officially opened this past Saturday night.
More than 800 alumni, trustees and donors donned their finest black-tie attire to attend the lavish dedication ceremony, which was held as part of Leadership Weekend.
Perhaps the most outwardly excited about both the dedication ceremony and the new quad was President William Brody. "It's fabulous, it's the best, it's spectacular," he said.
"It's an inviting presence for welcoming the new students," Dean of Students Susan Boswell said, adding that the quad "seems amazing and looks like it's always been here."
Tours guided by Hopkins undergraduate and graduate students allowed the attendees to walk through the fully furnished Mason Hall and almost-complete Computational Science and Engineering Building.
Attendees then dined beneath a giant tent that nearly covered the 75,000 square feet of the quad, where they also listened to presentations about the new buildings.
"It's an attractive way to introduce the school," said Raymond "Chip" Mason, a member of the board of trustees who donated the funds toward the creation of Mason Hall.
Though Saturday was the first time Mason saw the building, he seemed happy with the outcome, saying that the buildings and quad "bring back the school's tradition because the buildings resemble each other."
Mason insisted that he owes his involvement in the project to Jerry Schnydman, secretary of the Board of Trustees, who originally proposed to him the idea of building a new quad on what used to be a parking lot and baseball field.
The quadrangle was named after the late Al Decker of the Black & Decker Company and his wife, Virginia Decker. Al Decker was elected to the board of trustees in 1968 and was the first person to raise $100 million for the University.
Located on the southern end of the quad, Mason Hall houses the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, alumni meeting rooms, the Visitors' Center and the Public Relations Office. The building is now the first place prospective students see as they set foot on campus.
"It's a great place for us to work and do the best we can," Director of Undergraduate Admissions John Latting said.
According to Latting, before the move, the Admissions Office was always crowded and looking for other offices to do their work in. Latting took these concerns to the administration and praised Brody's response. "He asked me about what change I would want to make and that was it. He really made it happen," Latting said.
The tour guides explained that Mason Hall is supposed to make visitors feel at home. The hallways are lined with wood-framed photographs of students playing sports, studying and performing science experiments throughout the years.
Architects from Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott, the firm responsible for design and creation of the quad, worked with many people on campus to find such archives and memorabilia that would create the impression of combining tradition with moving forward, according to Lead Designer Tom Kearns.
"The project touches with the whole University and that's why it's so good - it's not just the architects," said Kearns, who is also a principal architect for the firm.
The Computational Science and Engineering Building, which will not be fully completed until December, is filled with labs, auditoriums, offices and research areas.
Work on the Comp Sci building has not been completed because a federal grant for a Human Language Technology Center of Excellence has not yet been approved, according to Director of Communications and Public Relations Dennis O'Shea.
Construction is "fitting out space that originally wasn't even going to be accounted for by this time. Originally there was going to be some shell space, space left vacant for future needs," O'Shea said.
The building houses the Institute for Computational Medicine, the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, the NSF Engineering Research Center for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology, and the Center for Language and Speech Processing.
Marcin Balicki, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, believes that the building is very "conducive to keeping us here." Balicki explained that many of the researchers who work in the building work strenuous hours, and the new structure helps to "raise the morale of students" and bring them closer together.
The robotics laboratory is one of few groups that are already moved into the building and are quite satisfied. Balicki explained that the building brings together many different types of engineers who can now collaborate with more ease than before.
According to O'Shea, a second celebration will be held in March to welcome the Whiting School community to the building.
Director of Design and Construction Travis Nelson said that he believes the new quadrangle works seamlessly with the rest of campus because "it is simple, and feels just right for the campus," but he also said that this final outcome was "not where we started."
Nelson described the original ideas for the quad as "peculiar," but in the end they returned to this more traditional design because it fits with the Georgian-style architecture found on campus.
While the guests ate dinner, slides of the construction and short films on the lives of students and donors were shown. The actual presentation consisted of speeches made by Brody, Mason, Chair of Trustees Pamela Flaherty and others.
Virginia Decker graciously accepted praise and a glass bowl that Axel Krieger, a doctoral candidate and mechanical engineering student, delivered to her on his bike.
Mason finished off the presentation with a short speech, saying that the new quad will be a great "welcoming center to all of those who visit."
