Page 26 - College Planning & Management, April 2017

Facilities CAMPUS SPACES
Looking Back, Moving Forward
New buildings on historic campuses must pay homage to the past
while claiming their own time and place in history. It’s a hard line to walk.
Three schools discuss rules to live by and when to break them.
BY AMY MILSHTEIN
BUILDING ON HISTORIC CAMPUSES CAN BE A conundrum. There’s so much history to protect and preserve, yet contemporary buildings should be just
that: contemporary. Three architects talk about the challenges and rewards of building on historic campuses.
Stanford University
Frederick Law Olmsted, along with architectural firm Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, designed Stanford University’s California Mission-inspired campus in the late 1880s. The campus has many buildings made of local sandstone and red-tiled roofs, but, “even our historic buildings have different styles,” admits Stanford University Architect David Lenox.
Preservation is most important when maintaining structures on Stanford’s Quad. But Lenox references four points when planning
a new building on campus: Does it adhere to Olmstead’s original master plan? Does it connect to the landscape in a respectful way? Is the scale appropriate for pedestrian traffic? And, most importantly, Is the material palette cohesive with the rest of the campus?
To that end, the school highly encourages architects to use
a specific, buff-colored limestone, along with deep bronze and “Stanford Black,” but doesn’t insist on it. “We are not slaves to the materials but we do want to make sure things fit,” explains Lenox.
They are also not afraid to add some completely modern ele- ments. Look to Stanford’s famous d.school for a case in point. The structure was built in four phases with one sandstone wing, two
26 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / APRIL 2017
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PHOTO COURTESY STANFORD UNIVERSITY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES