I often refer to David Starr Jordan's quotation from the end of the University's second decade: "It is said that Rome was not built in a day, nor Stanford in a century; but it is being built, quietly, honestly, steadfastly, stone after stone . . ."
I generally use this quote metaphorically, referring to the building of our academic programs and intellectual legacy. Little did I realize seven years ago that, upon becoming president, my responsibilities would include building Stanford quite literally stone by stone. As we near the end of the 20th century, some University interactions have moved to cyberspace, where the pace of activity grows at breathtaking speed. At this stage of its development, however, Stanford is anything but virtual.
In fact, we are completing the most intense period of construction in our history. Over a 10-year period, we will have spent approximately $1 billion on physical renewal and new facilities. This unprecedented activity is partly the result of essential restoration following Loma Prieta and seismic upgrade work mandated by law. As we have done seismic retrofitting, we have added the networking vital to new technologies.
Among the 85 upgraded buildings is the Bing Wing of the Cecil H. Green Library, the old University library. Formerly known as Green Library West, the wing is named for trustee Peter Bing, '55, who made the lead gift in the restoration campaign. In the new configuration, general library information will be provided at a new information center on the first floor of Green Library East. Faculty and students who need specialized sources will be referred to the humanities and area studies resource center, the social sciences resource center, or the special collections department -- all in the Bing Wing.
In addition, through the generosity of alumni and friends, we have enhanced the University's physical environment with the completion of the new Science and Engineering Quadrangle (SEQ). In recent months, buildings housing the teaching center and the statistics department have opened in SEQ. The latest addition is the David Packard Electrical Engineering Building, honoring the 1934 Stanford graduate who co-founded Hewlett-Packard. The new quad brings to fruition plans going back almost to the beginnings of Stanford that called for a science quadrangle to be built west of the Main Quad. The SEQ creates an integrated neighborhood of science and engineering facilities.
The world often forgets that the visual art that we are most exposed to on a daily basis is architecture: architecture "pure and simple" and architecture in its sculptural potential. It has the wonderful, but also frequently distressing, quality of being inescapable. This is why competitive architectural design is so important in the exercise of good stewardship at our universities -- maintaining the physical endowment handed down to us and then renewing it as needed to meet the changing nature of teaching, learning and research, as well as changing aesthetics.
A short while ago, in a circle of friends who had attended or were attending a variety of colleges and universities, I asked those present what they associated with the architecture of "their" campuses. They responded by talking about how their college represented the quintessential college to them: the architecture created community; the architecture connected them to history and tradition; commons, quads and plazas constituted public fora. They recalled the simple lines of 18th-century buildings, but also praised the beauty of recent "modern" additions to their campuses.
One Stanford alumna, who grew up on the East Coast, described her reaction to campus as she first approached it from Palm Drive: "I was stunned. The 'Spanish' architecture was outside my experience. The Main Quad and the foothills behind it were physically different from anything that I had thought of in relation to college. At first, I was not sure I liked it."
Her direct and vivid reaction was admirably refreshing. The complex that includes the Outer Quad, Memorial Court and the Main Quad is indeed unique in American campus architecture. The adaptation by Richardson and Coolidge of Romanesque design and arabesque stone carvings connects the yellow sandstone arches and cloisters to the California missions of the 18th century, as Leland Stanford wanted. (All of Stanford architecture is covered in a new book, The Campus Guide: Stanford University, published by the Princeton Architectural Press.)
We have worked hard to preserve the beauty and dignity our founders envisioned. In the circle of those with whom I talked about the campus environment was a current Stanford student. She said, "It is a gift to be on the Stanford campus. If you do not enjoy some part of it every day, you feel guilty for rejecting a gift."
I could not agree more.
