Johns Hopkins to buy Newseum building in D.C. as journalism museum plans to relocate

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Grade Point
Johns Hopkins to buy Newseum building in D.C. as journalism museum plans to relocate
The $372.5 million deal will give the university a prime Pennsylvania Avenue address for graduate programs in international relations and other fields.

By Nick Anderson and Peggy McGlone
January 25 at 1:46 PM

Johns Hopkins University is buying the landmark Pennsylvania Avenue building that houses the Newseum in a $372.5 million deal announced Friday that will enable the struggling cultural institution devoted to news and the First Amendment to seek a new home in the Washington area.

The Freedom Forum — the private foundation that created the Newseum and is its primary funder — said the museum will remain open at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW for the rest of the year. Then, assuming the deal wins regulatory approval, the university will take control of the property and prepare to move several graduate programs to a prime address in Washington.

The Newseum has operated since 2008 at the Penn Quarter location, near the Mall and a few blocks northwest of the Capitol, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors a year but enduring financial challenges as it charged an admission fee while neighboring Smithsonian museums were free. The Freedom Forum announced in August 2017 that it was studying options for the building, including a sale, to escape what had become an untenable run of perennial budget deficits at the Newseum.

“This was a difficult decision, but it was the responsible one,” Jan Neuharth, chair and chief executive of the Freedom Forum, said in a statement. “We remain committed to continuing our programs — in a financially sustainable way — to champion the five freedoms of the First Amendment and to increase public awareness about the importance of a free and fair press. With today’s announcement, we can begin to explore all options to find a new home in the Washington D.C. area.”

For Johns Hopkins, a prominent research university based in Baltimore, the purchase will raise its profile in the nation’s capital. The university’s School of Advanced International Studies, which for decades has been on Massachusetts Avenue NW, will move to the Pennsylvania Avenue building after it is remodeled. So will other D.C.-based graduate programs in business, nursing, and arts and sciences. Hopkins said it has about 3,300 faculty, students and staff in the city, in addition to faculty at Johns Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital in Northwest Washington.
....

Nick Anderson covers higher education and other education topics for The Washington Post. He has been a writer and editor at The Post since 2005. Follow https://twitter.com/wpnick

Peggy McGlone is a reporter for The Washington Post, covering arts in the Washington region. Before coming to The Post, she worked for the Star-Ledger in New Jersey as a features writer and beat reporter covering arts and education. Follow https://twitter.com/PeggyMcGlone

This was my first thought:

SteveDC 5 minutes ago

Will Johns Hopkins keep the First Amendment on the front of the building?

Source: https://blog.library.gsu.edu/2012/03/23/secularists-descend-upon-d-c-for-reason-rally/

{edited to add}

Fri Jan 25, 2019: Johns Hopkins to buy Newseum building in D.C. as journalism museum plans to relocate

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Oh, just the *building*. The Newseum will be moving, apparently. nt

[LisaM]

2. I wasn't a huge fan, but the best part about it was its location

There's an outside balcony that had pictures of events in history you could have seen from the location where you were standing on the balcony. That was one of the few things I enjoyed about it (it seemed kind of corporate to me).