JHU Buys Newseum Building To House DC-Based Graduate Programs

WASHINGTON, DC — Johns Hopkins University has announced plans to purchase the building that houses the Newseum in Washington, DC. The structure on Pennsylvania Avenue will be sold for $372.5 million, according to a statement from the university.

Johns Hopkins plans to use the space to consolidate its DC-based graduate programs, which are currently spread across three buildings on Massachusetts Avenue near Dupont Circle.

"With the acquisition and renovation of the Newseum, we will have an unparalleled opportunity to bring all of our current DC-based Johns Hopkins graduate programs together in a single, landmark, state-of-the-art building," Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels said in a statement on Friday, Jan. 25.

The Newseum building is a little more than a mile from the Massachusetts Avenue buildings where the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) are currently based. It's more than 40 miles from the Homewood campus in Charles Village and medical campus on Wolfe Street.

According to the university, the plan is to house the DC-based graduate programs at the central location on Pennsylvania Avenue in the Newseum building. Anchored by SAIS, the building will also contain the business school, nursing school and advanced academic programs.

Daniels said that building would complement the flagship Baltimore campuses and play a role in "deepening our connections to debates over national and global policy" and "provide opportunities for every academic division of the university to pursue research and educational activities in Washington."

Said Daniels: "Our commitment to contributing our ideas and expertise to these debates lies at the core of what it means to be a vital and relevant university."

Money to purchase the building at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue will come from institutional funds, philanthropic support and the sale of the three Johns Hopkins buildings where the SAIS, business and advanced academic programs are now— at 1619, 1717 and 1740 Massachusetts Avenue.

Before moving in, Johns Hopkins will renovate the building, a process that is expected to start in 2020 and take two-and-a-half years.

"It's a huge facility, and we do intend to make some major changes," Johns Hopkins Senior Director of Planning and Architecture Lee Coyle said in a statement. "Considerable interior modifications will be required to repurpose the structure from its current use as a museum into a venue that supports JHU's higher education mission in D.C. today and for decades to come."

It's been no secret that the Newseum has struggled financially. It has occupied that location for only a little more than a decade. Its owner, the Freedom Forum, announced in 2017 it would explore a sale of the building.

The Freedom Forum said the Newseum would remain open at least through 2019.

"The sale comes at the conclusion of a 16-month strategic review, announced in August 2017, of the Freedom Forum's funding priorities, including an assessment of the Newseum's unsustainable operating costs," the organization said in a statement. "The purpose of the review was to identify financially responsible solutions for the building through creative partnerships, a partial sale, leaseback scenarios, or other joint ventures. Despite those efforts, the Freedom Forum review made clear that a sale of the facility was the best path forward to enable the organization and its affiliates to continue their First Amendment-based mission. Johns Hopkins will acquire the property for $372.5 million."

There is not yet any word on where the Newseum will go.

— By Patch editors Dan Taylor and Elizabeth Janney

Image via Google street view.