New Stanford Hospital

Completed in November 2019, the New Stanford Hospital by GLS Landscape | Architecture and Rafael Vinoly Architects replaces Stanford University’s original hospital designed in 1959 by Thomas Church and Edward Durell Stone.

Like the original honeycombed courtyard building, the new hospital has been designed with a strong landscape narrative that prioritizes the connection to nature as central to its mission of healing for patients and families, and providing a healthy workplace for faculty and staff. At the entrance to the 12-acre medical facility is an Orchard of Medicinal Trees – Ginkgo, Loquat, Apricot, Olive, Oak and Buckeye – highlighting the roots of modern medicine as being strongly connected to traditional food crops. Viewed by patients and families from light-filled rooms above are four acres of public gardens and world class artworks located over a three-story masonry base which echoes the scale of the historic quad designed by Fredrick Law Olmstead with Charles Coolidge (successor firm to HH Richardson). The hospital’s open spaces are designed to be fully integrated into the California physical and cultural landscape, drawing on the history of Santa Clara Valley agriculture, Silicon Valley technology, and the restorative and therapeutic power of nature.

The base-isolated hospital is designed to maintain uninterrupted service for two weeks following a major earthquake, and to that end the ground level acreage incorporates significant infrastructure and complex circulation. It accommodates 600 patient beds for an increase of approximately 824,000 square feet. GLS’s scope of work encompasses all areas outside the building footprint, including the campus promenade, open air courtyards, hospital forecourt, restored Halprin-designed fountain and service areas, as well as the extensive roof gardens.