A beloved museum’s university setting, reclaimed
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}

DETAILS

LocationStanford, California United States
ClientStanford University
Size2.5 acres

The original Stanford campus museum was damaged in an earthquake in 1989. With help from major namesake donors to the museum, significant site improvements, expansion and seismic renovation improvements were accomplished. SWA provided master plan updates and full landscape architectural services including pedestrian pathways; two major terraces for displaying sculpture; a landscaped courtyard; and the renovation and integration of the existing Rodin Sculpture Garden, complete with new center gardens. This reinvestment in a unique university attribute integrates the existing sculpture garden with new building and outdoor elements and connects the Cantor Center with the larger Stanford campus. SWA’s partners on this project were Polshek and Partners Architects, with historic preservation consultation by the Architectural Resources Group; seismic engineering was performed by H.J. Degenkolb Associates.

Related Projects

Stanford Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences

Sitting atop a hill above Stanford University’s campus, the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) has long been a destination for groundbreaking thinkers, with 30 Nobel Prize winners, 25 Pulitzer Prize winners, 52 MacArthur Fellows, and 176 members of the National Academy of Sciences among the esteemed class of Fellows. Situated between the ...

Shanghai International Dance Center

Inspired by the idea of movement, this collaboration with Studios Architecture achieves an artful harmony of building with landscape, program with site. The image of a dancer in grand jete kindled the designers’ imaginations and served as the project’s organizing idea. Asia’s first professional dance complex is tucked between a freeway, a subway station...

National Civil Rights Museum

Located at the Lorraine Motel—site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 1968—the National Civil Rights Museum serves as both a national institution and an international destination for reflection and remembrance. Led by Howard+Revis in collaboration with Self+Tucker and SWA, the west campus landscape design represents a return to a s...

Chabot College Library & Grand Court

In collaboration with architects Group 4 and HMC, SWA transformed Chabot College’s predominantly paved Grand Court into an outdoor living room at the heart of the 14,000-student campus. The opportunity to reimagine the space came in conjunction with siting, massing, and designing the new iconic, three-story faceted library where the campus’ main walks intersec...

Scripps College Residence

The landscape design for the new residence hall builds on the Scripps College campus tradition of landscaped courtyards formed by buildings and circulation corridors. In doing so, the design helps to establish a new east-west axis connecting the main campus to future recreation facilities to the east. The project also improves interrelationships and connection...

Dallas Arboretum: A Tasteful Place

A year-round “food oasis” awaits visitors at A Tasteful Place, a new edible/display garden within the Dallas Arboretum. A continuation of SWA’s Arboretum work (which includes Red Maple Rill and the Children’s Garden), A Tasteful Place provides visual and hands-on education about plants and herbs that can be used in visitors’ daily cooking and explored in...

Northwest Vista College

Northwest Vista College is situated in the oak covered hills west of San Antonio, with beautiful views toward the city and surrounding valley. Previously the design team completed an extensive master plan that accommodated for the expansion of the college facilities to three times its current size. The design seeks to sensitively integrate the nearly 400,000 s...

California Academy of Sciences

One of San Francisco’s first sustainable building projects, the California Academy of Sciences supports a stunning 2.5-acre green roof. Emphasizing habitat quality and connectivity, the project has received two LEED Platinum certifications.

The building’s architectural team, the Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW), invited SWA Group and horticultural c...