Johns Hopkins University Technology Ventures FastForward Hub

Johns Hopkins University Technology Ventures was seeking to create a technologically advanced innovation hub to serve the needs of start-ups. Located at the heart of the EBDI Science & Technology Park, the FastForward Hub was an opportunity to embody the organization’s leadership role in the commercialization of emerging technologies.

Our design of the FastForward Hub is representative of its immediate context. Gritty and raw, the start-up space takes on an urban, industrial aesthetic that mirrors the industrial buildings that surround it and the fabric of East Baltimore. By contrast, the space for university staff is more refined, offering features for a more permanent tenant. Both offerings come together in the café and assembly spaces, which we designed to be flexible and scalable to suit the needs of both types of occupants. Here, start-ups and established businesses commune and collide, taking advantage of the open, relaxed café atmosphere and the infrastructure of the large assembly spaces.

The completed facility provides Baltimore’s growing innovation scene with much needed office, co-working, and wet lab space. It encompasses two floors of collaborative workspace with 17,000 square feet dedicated to start-up labs, 8,000 square feet of office space for start-ups, and 12,000 square feet of office space for entrepreneurial advisors.