The Johns Hopkins Hospital

The Building Itself as Art: Curtain Wall

Artist Spencer Finch worked closely with architects to create a seamless “skin” for the facilities that is itself a piece of art. The enormous curtain wall that covers most of the building features 26 carefully chosen shades of glass inspired by the Impressionist paintings of Claude Monet. Blues and greens represent the adult and children’s towers respectively, and can be seen for miles away. The curtain wall shimmers in the sun, creating an effect reminiscent of water, and changing in appearance with the changing weather and angle of light.

The curtain wall is the result of months of painstaking experiments with color and materials to determine which would work best both functionally and aesthetically.