Baltimore/places

The major buildings/areas at the Johns Hopkins Campus.

AMR I

Home of the Girls Dorm, as well as home of the nurses, office, and Individually Paced Math Sequence. AMR I houses the administrative headquarters in one room, as KW does at Carlisle. The dorms are in fairly good condition, with the exception of a bug… or four and doors that auto-lock behind you and occasionally swing shut. During 2007, several mattresses had to be switched out on the first floor due to bug infestations.

The lower floor contains a room (the Reading Room) for general purposes: Registration Day, and other afternoon activites like Talent Show Practice, Silent Reading, and Board Games. The Reading Room has a piano open for usage outside of activity time. The first floor also has Site Office, where the site director is for most of the day. There is also a TV room where the RAs hung out when they had time to, where we had the activity Friends Watching, and where Acting Improv, Board Games, Card Games, and Mafia were occasionally held.

There are kitchens near the reading room and office and in the basement has a common kitchen where most kids make Ramen and other food that can be cooked with a microwave. The common kitchen is also home to Board Games and Starburst Flowers a few times. The laundry room is in said basement In a corner of AMR I is the health office.

Many activities are held right outside AMR I. There is a volleyball net, a gazebo, a picnic area with benches, and a shaded area. Acting improv, debate, volleyball, arts and crafts, and various other activities are held here.

AMR II

Home of the guys dorm, housing office, and social lounge. AMR II is in sufficiently better condition than AMR I (much to the girls' dismay). They also have a cool lounge in the basement (often occupied by Discover Hopkins, Precollege, Hopkins Engineering Innovation, and the CTY Center Scholars program). This lounge has a pool table, a TV with couches, a Foosball table, and a semi-functional air hockey table. AMR II also has TWO laundry rooms, the housing office and a small common kitchen. It is possible to enter one's hall without a building keykeycard--one can go down the stairs at the front entrance, walk around in the basement, then climb one of two sets of stairs to go up into the upper floors. There are four floors (although only the first three are filled). It should be noted that AMRII dorms have wheels chairs that are perfect for chariot races.

Gentle Slope

The Gentle Slope is often used as a field for Ultimate Frisbee after lunch.

All classes meet here in the morning, after lunch, and after dinner, by lampposts that circle the entire area. This is also the area where groups meet before Activities, and where some of them happen, including Capture the Flag, Ultimate Frisbee, Football, Soccer, and Dodgeball. Mandatory Fun and Social Time can be held here. During Mandatory Fun, it is often used for various smaller activities and games. During free time, many people can be found playing Ultimate Frisbee, throwing around a football, or just hanging out. It's basically the central meeting place for everything.

At the start of Session One, the Gentle Slope is always mostly filled with grass. However, because of extremely frequent use and trampling, it loses at least 10% of its grass by the end of the session. When there is rain, becomes very muddy. One can always find many small pebbles and pieces of smoothed broken glass bottles in these bare patches.

There are a number of small grassy areas (separated from the Gentle Slope and from each other by walkways), many of which have trees, around AMR I, AMR II, the Grassy Hollow, and the Gentle Slope. Many of these are locations for classes to meet in the morning, after lunch, and after dinner.

Sleepy Hollow

The cutting down of the tree of Sleepy Hollow

Way cooler than it sounds. It is the area next to the rock on the field that contains the small cabin-like building, the Homewood House Museum. There was a large tree (from which would hang a chain on a trunk) that was cut down in 09.1. It is often the site of such activities as Spud and Debate. The Sleepy Hollow is adjacent to the Gentle Slope.

The Question Mark Field

Some people think it looks like a question mark but dementedly shaped blob would probably be more like it. Activities like Ultimate Frisbee, Recess Games, Capture the Flag, Dodgeball, and Kickball would be here. It is separated from the Gentle Slope by a walking path. Off-limits during Meet Market.

Mattin Center

The Mattin Center has roughly 10 practice rooms where Music Practice and Talent Show Practice are held during Activities. All of the rooms are soundproof and most have a piano in them. There are very few right angles in Mattin Center. In 08.1, 09.1, and 09.2, Mattin Center and the surrounding area and buildings were used for Casino Night.

The Beach

The Beach, as seen from the East Gate of the JHU Homewood campus

No, it's not really a beach. It's actually a pretty big circular area (grassy field) where a lot of activities are held (Kindergarten Games, Downhill Rolling, Cloud Watching, Blowing Bubbles). People are often found tanning there though. There's a stone wall near the front of the field where you can sit; the JHU lettering is on it. There is a path around the Beach for buses and/or airport shuttles to stop at. The Beach is almost adjacent to Mattin Center.

Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy

This building holds most science classes, some of which are in the basement. Out in the front is a small grassy lawn with a sculpture of a diffraction spectrometer in it. It is a long walk from the dorms (on the Northeast corner of the campus) to Bloomberg, which is on the Northwest corner of the campus. The rooms and desks may be extremely small. Classes typically take breaks outside the entrance. The building contains a large green telescope surrounded by cement towers (which you can view from above) and an observatory (which is locked)

The Buffalo Sculpture Garden

A really nice garden/forest place. Some activities held there were silent reading, sketching, and best of all, You Wanna Buy A Duck?, which involved water guns. The sculptures are of various animals, such as penguins, bears, camels, and snails. Classes that meet in Bloomberg pass by the garden every day. It is somewhat of an "off-limits" place, but it varies across sessions and years. This is not to be confused with the sculpture garden next to the Baltimore museum of art.

The BMA Sculpture Garden

A often off-limits place that you need express permission visit (which you should get, because it's a cool little place). The sculptures themselves are always modern art and it should be noted that the garden is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. It opens from 10-5, except on Thursdays when it's open until 9.

The BMA (Baltimore museum of art)

A museum that is twinned to the sculptures garden. It has the same opening and closing times and visitation limits. It's a common place for some RAs to take their kids on weekends or for end of course trips to happen (if your teacher's cool and plans ahead)

Glass Pavilion

a.k.a. the Fishbowl or the Glass Pav, where the dances are usually held. This building is really just (like the name says) a pavilion with walls of glass. It is really an awesome place to hold dances (except it is a little too big, and the walls are made out of glass, which lets too much light in so people do not really start dancing until about halfway through the dance). Downstairs is a screening room, the Arellano Theater, where they show a movie for people who don't want to dance. In addition, there is a hallway that leads to Levering (see below). There are three easily accessible drinking fountains--one in the Fishbowl itself (behind a set of curtains), though in 18.2 it only had warm water, one downstairs, and one in Levering. One can walk around on the balcony outside (between the Glass Pavilion and Levering), where there are benches and wiggly cement floor blocks. Many people gather here to just talk, take a break from dancing, or take pictures with friends. Casino Night and other mandatory fun activities are frequently held here.

Levering Hall

Connected to the Glass Pavilion where kids can just hang out if they don't want to dance. There is a drinking fountain, an area with sofas, and a hallway that leads to a room where games are played during dances.

There is also a cafe there called Pura Vida. Its cups are unattended. You can easily sneak behind there and take cups/other cafe things. Cups are mostly used to collect water from the water fountains.

Registration may be in front of this building.

Gilman Hall

Gilman Hall being renovated.

Some of the classes are in here. And it's a really cool place, which you should totally explore inside out. The signature spire, the reading room, the archeology displays, the oval spiral stairs, the crest which you should NEVER EVER STEP ON and those big hanging lights are all really cool. The bell tower you always see representing JHU is actually the tower at Gilman. During 09.1 and 09.2 it was undergoing serious renovations and construction.

In front of it is Keyser Quad, where some activities often take place. The bells ring every 15 minutes, which can be annoying and disrupt the class. To get to the Glass Pavilion, you must walk through a tunnel in this building.

White Athletic Center

The swimming pool is located here (note that there is no longer a swimming activity due to CTYers wearing inappropriate bathing suits in the past and other complications). Dodgeball may be held here.

Shriver Hall

Shriver Hall

The closing ceremony, talent show rehearsal, and talent show, and orientation may be held here. The Casino night horse race often occurs in front of it. It's really big and scary if you go in there when the lights are dimmed. The fabric covering the seats is old and stained and some have gum under them. In front of Shriver Hall is the Wyman Quad, where a few activities or mandatory fun games may take place.

Latrobe Hall

Many STEM classes are taught here (usually Investigations in engineering, Astrophysics and Special relativity. It has a balcony on top that you can access (if the doors are unlocked) and these undercroft areas where frisbees fall occasionally. Should this happen, you should go down to the basement and climb out the window to get them. It's perfectly safe and well known that no matter how old and heavy the side-to-open windows appear, they will NOT shut behind you.