Stanford's Architecture

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
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<p>Really? What about the Main Quad, Palm Drive, The Row, Bio X bldg, the whole science complex (Hewlett, Gates, Packard buidings) the Green Library- Bender room, The Dish, Hoover tower etc etc etc…
Seriously, people can’t find a goregous place to take a picture? I think the options are too many for most to comprehend!!!</p>

22

<p>^No, one can find gorgeous places to take a picture, but not places to take a “stunning” picture. There’s a big difference.</p>

<p>I would generally agree about the stunning aspect; I’ve seen a couple though.</p>

23

<p>^ You would be the one to say that.</p>

<p>JCX, you should explore the many photographs and videos taken of the campus. As an amateur photographer, I can say that the campus offers much in the way of ‘stunning.’ You just have to find it, which of course is the task of any photographer. IMO it’s not hard to find such on Stanford’s campus. Sure if you’re looking for large Gothic buildings, a la Harkness Tower at Yale, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment (as many people do when they come to a campus like Stanford’s). But that’s not what the campus is about in general; you have to probe for - and appreciate - the natural beauty that exists there already, and it’s rather easy. It’s a sight to see, I promise. ;)</p>

24

<p>Having grown up in a modern Asian city where buildings are all huuuuge, there’s really nothing that stunning about that list. The engineering quad buildings look just like normal academic building to me. James H. Clark Center looks cool and is probably my favourite building in the west campus, but I won’t call it stunning. The Green Library is pretty big but it’s not visually impressive because they chose not to have a huge reading room like the kind New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building has.</p>

<p>As I said, the scenery (Dish, Lagunita, etc) and buildings are all visually pleasing and beautiful but nothing really grandiose. That’s really the whole style of Stanford: humble excellence. I think it’s a deliberate choice, part of the whole laid-back Silicon Valley spirit (e.g. everyone wears T-shirt and jeans) and I like it. But I’m just saying that it’s very easy to see how some people can be disappointed by the visual appearance of the school because it’s just not stunning the way some universities are with their grand architecture.</p>

25

<p>

Okay what is that supposed to mean?</p>

<p>Anyways, echoing JCX, Stanford’s campus is very pretty and fits in very well with the surrounding environment. Sadly that is the problem for a photographer. Schools like Yale have snow, fall-colored leaves, dark green hills in the backdrop, and so forth. An urban school will have a great backdrop, especially at night (the NYC campus would have been awesome in that regard). At Stanford, the surrounding environment is pretty understated. Pretty? Yes. Great colors? Not especially.</p>

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<p>^ again, you would be the one to say that.</p>

<p>JCX, I agree with you about the engineering quad. I’ve never found the newer STEM buildings very attractive; the medicine and engineering buildings attempt to take on the old Spanish mission architecture while also attempting to be “modern.” Many people are underwhelmed by the campus because they expect large, grandiose buildings. But it doesn’t make sense to conclude “not stunning” - that depends completely on what you expected in the first place. Many don’t have the same expectation as you, and so they find the campus “stunning” (which is actually a commonly used word to describe it). Similarly, many expect Harvard’s campus or MIT’s campus to have that huge Gothic architecture, and they just don’t have it. As suggested before, some people find the look of schools like Yale or Princeton to be pretentious or inconsistent. I think TheGFG said it right: “Stanford’s look is unique, and so there’s not much neutrality about it. People tend to either really love it or really hate it.”</p>

<p>By the way, if there is any ‘humble excellence’ to Stanford’s campus, it has nothing to do with Silicon Valley - after all, the oldest buildings on campus (like Memorial Church, Green Library, Cantor, Old Union) were built long before.</p>

27

<p>

You would be the one to say that. Look I don’t know what I ever did to you, but I don’t think it warrants you being a dick to me. </p>

<p>

You could describe the entire campus as “stunning” yet be challenged in taking a “stunning” photograph of the place. I’m surprised you consider yourself an amateur photographer but don’t understand the distinction. For me, a stunning photograph has that special quality, a photo that you want to look at over and over again. </p>

<p>This is a photo of MemChu that I think is borderline “stunning”: <a href=“https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Jt4SGsGH8lQ/TlNwbpze3zI/AAAAAAAAMnA/iU6xuUjIUGI/StanfordMemorialChurch-tm2lrglr.JPG[/url]”>https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Jt4SGsGH8lQ/TlNwbpze3zI/AAAAAAAAMnA/iU6xuUjIUGI/StanfordMemorialChurch-tm2lrglr.JPG&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>But the lighting contributes almost as much to that photo as the actual architecture. In my opinion, an average photographer would be hard pressed to take a stunning photo of Stanford with a normal night backdrop, and even more hard pressed to take one in normal daylight. Which I think is what the OP was getting at. Because the right lighting can make even a garbage bin wall-worthy.</p>

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<p>@phantasmagoric</p>

<p>Yeah of course we all have different prior expectation and tastes. But I think you are on the verge of rendering the word “stunning” meaningless. As I said, I think it’s a very beautiful campus and now that I have experienced other college campuses in the States, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. But I really don’t see how you can call the architecture or scenery stunning? The architecture is elegant and functional, but nothing really designed to wow or impress.</p>

<p>Also I’m not sure why you find it significant to object to my characterizing this as a Silicon Valley style, since the Silicon Valley is basically an extension of Stanford’s culture. There’s a reason why they call President Terman the father of the Silicon Valley.</p>

29

<p>Again for what its worth i think Stanford is stunning. Living in the Northeast, I’m use to schools like Yale, Princeton and Duke. Do I think they are visually stunning and gorgeous? Absolutely, but so is Stanford!!! Certainly, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, but in addition to that I believe that people have to look at beauty from many different points of view. Just because Stanford doesn’t look like Princeton, doesn’t make Stanford any less stunning. In addition, I’m surprised that Stanford is even being compared to Yale. Yale certainly has some beautiful buildings but as a whole the campus is not so attractive, nor is the city which is very much a part of the campus. There isn’t a part of the Stanford campus that isn’t kept in prestine condition and then the city of Palo Alto is beautiful. As a whole Stanford can’t be beat.</p>

30

<p>Google Earth/Maps street view can give you a decent idea:</p>

<p>The good: Main Quad +Hoover Tower (that iconic stanford architecture), Engineering Quad (very modern and quite different from the Spanish style architecture), Clark Center+Med School (modern, except for the main hospital bldg, which looks like it belongs in Peru or something). The new Arillaga Dining Commons (end of Escondido Rd.) is modern and a welcome addition, Mayfield Dr./The Row is quite beautiful,</p>

<p>The bad: Roble Hall needs a facelift…it’s pink for God’s sake. Stern is also…pink and looks like a modern architecture nightmare, Meyer library is hideous and filled with 24-hour student-zombies (Thankfully it has been sinking for a while and I hear it will be torn down in the near future), The bookstore is pretty meh as well. NOTE: Place is pretty green in terms of foliage, but is also VERY DUSTY (It feels more like a campground as opposed to a university at times). Palo Alto is also a somewhat **** college town (overpriced without much to show for it?).</p>

<p>The ugly: Florence Moore Hall (off of Campus near Tressider), Governor’s Corner (Santa Teresa), The old engineering buildings between Roble and the engineering quad, Tressider union (the worst part is that you’ll be seeing this one every single day), the modulars near Serra/Galvez), the entire chemistry area is hideous and hated by all decent people, some of the most hideous grad student housing you will see in escondido village. And our “Lake Lagunita” is a dusty pit for the most part.</p>

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<p>Once again beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Nothing is perfect. But as a whole Stanford can’t be beat!!!</p>

32

<p>I would say Harvard has some of the blandest looking buildings/architecture out there, yet I don’t hear many people say they wouldn’t consider applying there due to that. I think Stanford is beautiful in it’s own unique way just like I think Rice University is with it’s neo-Byzantine architecture. Not every college/university has to have Gothic or neo-Gothich architecture.</p>

33

<p>I have visited a lot of college campuses, and love the east coast look. However, I do find Stanford’s campus to be quite breathtaking, and the landscape maintenance is really second to none. Beautiful, well-kept plantings everywhere. The only downside to the campus, and it’s not a visual one, is how spread out it is, and I think a bike is essential there. But otherwise, Stanford’s campus rocks!</p>

34

<p>Most of Stanford’s architecture is quite beautiful, and fits in well nestled in the rolling northern California hills. Just google image search “stanford university” for a breathtaking view of the Main Quad and the mosaic facade of Memorial Church. Also, I like that there’s some history behind the style of the architecture. For example, every roof on campus (old buildings and new) is red because co-founder Jane Stanford apparently wanted her deceased son Leland to be able to easily find the school when looking down from heaven (I learned this from a docent in the “Stanford history” section at Stanford’s Cantor Art Center).</p>

35

The buildings on the Stanford campus all look like Taco Bell.

36

C’mon @simba9 you need to be more original than that…so many others have used that description. That Spanish “Taco Bell” look seems to have done a pretty good job making it the most sought after exclusive dream school/country club in the world…

…now, if the architecture looked more like “In-N-Out”…it should have more than double the applications…knowing how many people LOVE those burgers :))

37

I chose not to apply to Stanford for many reasons, architecture about the least among them, but I still never quite “got” the style of buildings on its campus. I was more attracted to the Gothic and Colonial styles of East Coast campuses (though I found Harvard’s campus to be unforgivably ugly, with its uninspiring brick and unfortunate masses of concrete detracting heavily from the beauty of some of its few appealing buildings). However, I think that many posters are spot-on in pointing out that Stanford’s mission style works well with its surroundings, and effectively displays aspects of Californian history and culture while demonstrating the school’s self-identification as an institution of innovation rather than one of tradition (or at least, a different set of traditions than its East Coast peers). While Stanford’s not my cup of tea, and I do think it resembles a certain chain of “Mexican” food, I would find it odd for a college of its sort to mimic Princeton or Yale, as it has its own distinct identity and surroundings.

38

Stanford was founded in 1885, Taco Bell in 1962. Is it possible that Taco Bell looks like Stanford and not the other way around?

39

^That’s a good point. :slight_smile:

Seriously though, it’s a beautiful campus overall and the style fits the area. That’s not to say that every building is a masterpiece . . . for example Escondido Village is pretty bland to my eye, as are some of the medical center buildings . . . but overall it works.

40

I find it fascinating that this thread, that has 0 to do with academics or admissions, has received so many views on a forum that is comparatively quiet.