The new home of the GSE has been designed to further four main goals: building community, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, facilitating contemporary teaching and research, and expanding our reach.
Here are a few features of the new campus that will support the university’s vision for transforming learning.
The new campus centers around a spacious atrium and outdoor courtyard. In addition to space for large convenings, the buildings feature a wide variety of flexible meeting spaces, both indoors and outdoors, as well as informal hubs for collaboration.
The courtyard entrance to the north building leads to a wide atrium, known as the forum, which serves as a central hub as well as an event space.
The forum will also be home to a commissioned art installation, The Gravity of the Sun, by Jacob Hashimoto.
The forum
Art installation, The Gravity of the Sun, by Jacob Hashimoto
The central courtyard provides space for celebrations and gatherings, as well as an area that can be used as an outdoor classroom.
The central courtyard provides space for celebrations and gatherings, as well as an area that can be used as an outdoor classroom.
The beloved former library space in the historic GSE building will retain its charm while being updated as a community gathering and event space, including two large breakout rooms.
On the fourth floor of the south building, the colloquium provides meeting space with moveable screens, a reception area, and terraces on either side, with bay and campus views.
“Collaboration is critical to take education into a currently unimaginable and brighter future. In the end, the campus will do what architecture does best: orchestrate social interaction.”
Both buildings include plenty of space for interaction, from study groups to chance encounters. Pictured: The historic building’s lobby, with its red tile floors, gives ample room for comfortable seating. The busy south building lobby is the main path to class for many students and faculty. In the north building, the area outside the auditorium provides for breakout conversations.
Historic lobby
South building lobby
In addition to the main courtyard, the north building will feature a sunken garden, and the south building three terraces (north, south, and east) and a patio facing the new Town Center.
A sunken garden on the north side of the north building, facing Green Library, provides a quiet space off the library and classrooms.
The learning spaces at the new GSE campus have been designed to be flexible, inclusive, and interactive. With just one auditorium, the focus is on smaller learning spaces, which can also serve as research, experimentation, and demonstration spaces. Technology for data collection and visualization, virtual teaching and learning, and hands-on experimentation fuel creativity and innovation.
The cohort-based design of the GSE’s teacher education program means that STEP students value time as a full cohort as well as the chance to learn with the smaller group of students in the same content area. The historic Barnum Hub will be used as a program gathering and learning space, with additional dedicated classrooms designed for hands-on, interactive learning and experimentation.
Barnum Hub
STEP classroom
At the center of the north building is the [Barnett Family?] Auditorium, scaled for larger classes, symposia, speakers, and panel discussions, and equipped with technology for remote audiences.
The library will remain in the historic GSE building—but in a new location in the north wing near Green Library. Now on two levels with an open core at the center, the library will open onto the historic lobby on the ground floor, and the sunken garden at the lower level. It will also include meeting rooms as well as informal lounge space.
“No learning or research can happen without collaborative relationships. For those of use who sit at the intersection of multiple fields, it’s this interconnected community of the GSE that’s the scaffold that makes our work possible.”
— Madison Bunderson, doctoral student
The courtyard entrance to the north building leads to a wide atrium, known as the forum, which serves as a central hub as well as an event space.
The forum will also be home to a commissioned art installation, The Gravity of the Sun, by Jacob Hashimoto.
The central courtyard provides space for celebrations and gatherings, as well as an area that can be used as an outdoor classroom.
The beloved former library space in the historic GSE building will retain its charm while being updated as a community gathering and event space, including two large breakout rooms.
On the fourth floor of the south building, the colloquium provides meeting space with moveable screens, a reception area, and terraces on either side, with bay and campus views.
© Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305.
