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 campus’ well-known Stanford Dish and undeveloped pastures, CASBS occupies a unique place at the wildland-urban interface, functioning as a campus within a campus—an enclave for innovation.
To shape the next chapter of this legacy, SWA collaborated with Olson Kundig to revitalize CASBS’s mid-century modern setting, honor Thomas Church’s original landscape design, and enhance the facility to inspire collaboration.
Olson Kundig introduced the first new building to the campus since its founding in 1954. Strategically positioned, the new administration building frames a central courtyard, transforming what was once paved asphalt into an inviting social hub. Oriented for optimal sunlight, the courtyard is marked by prominent existing trees to enhance their presence. The trees are complemented by a series of stone retaining walls, referencing the feature often used in Church’s designs to navigate grade changes across the site and improve the connection between gathering spaces.
With no original records of Church’s design to reference, SWA drew from a portfolio of nearly 300 Stanford projects and studied Church’s broader portfolio to develop a list of signature plantings appropriate for the historic campus. The selected tree palette was expanded using a wider range of more adaptable and climate-resilient oak species, creating the next generation of oak canopy shading the complex.
The completed courtyard establishes a welcoming entrance to the CASBS campus. It also serves as a development tool, leveraging the majestic California landscape to create an atmosphere that invites engagement and events that spark new ideas. As the first major update to the CASBS campus in 60 years, the collaboration building and courtyard enhance the campus experience, honoring the Fellows of the past while inspiring those of the future for decades to come.
Stanford Branner Hall
Branner Hall is a three-story undergraduate dormitory built in 1924 by Bakewell and Brown, prominent architects of the time who were also responsible for San Francisco’s City Hall. The renovation design creates two significant courtyards: an entrance courtyard flanked with four-decades-old magnolia trees shading a seating area and an interior courtyard with a ...
Universidad de Monterrey Campus Master Plan
The project focuses on improving the sustainability of the 247-acre campus, designing a shift from a vehicular orientation to one that encourages pedestrian, bicycle, and transit use. Site design strategies employ indigenous plant materials and natural water retention and filtration for low-maintenance landscaping. Phase 1 includes site design for one of Latin...
Coda at Tech Square
The Coda building in Technology Square represents a $375 million investment into Atlanta’s budding innovation district – the Southeast’s premier innovation neighborhood. The area has attracted industry innovation centers including AT&T Mobility, Panasonic Automotive, Southern Company, Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot, Coca-Cola Enterprises, NCR,...
CREATE Campus, National University of Singapore
CREATE, the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise, is an international research campus and innovation hub at the National University of Singapore. Home to a vibrant scientific community, CREATE hosts the National Research Foundation, interdisciplinary research centers from top universities, and corporate laboratories such as the Singapore...