Architectural Record 2015-02

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ARCHITECTURAL RECORD FEBRUARY 2015 RITUAL AND RETREAT
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1 ENTRANCE
2 ENTRY GALLERY
3 INFO / COAT ROOM
4 SOUTH GALLERY
5 BRIDGE
6 COURTYARD
7 NORTH GALLERY
8 PANTRY
9 ELECTRICAL
10 MECHANICAL
11 RESTROOM
12 WATER GARDEN
13 LABYRINTH
FLOOR PLAN
0 20 FT.
6 M.
became concerned with the amount of stress he observed.
On the occasion of his retirement in 1995, he gave a talk about
his vision for a contemplative space that could provide some
moments of quiet respite. In the audience was a collector of
his work, Suzanne Duca, who offered to help fund the center.
It would take nearly two decades for the project to get
off the ground; in addition to standard bureaucratic hurdles,
its rather amorphous program didn’t fit neatly into the
university structure (eventually, it would come under the
wing of two offices, religious life and student affairs), and
it took a while to settle on a central location that could be
easily accessed by students. Oliveira was pleased by the final
determination, a former parking lot bordered by a grove of
old oak trees, adjacent to student housing. He died in 2012,
well before Aidlin Darling Design had been selected as
architect. However, his son Joe Oliveira thinks he would
have been “overjoyed” by the result. “I know he would have
loved the soft quality of the lighting and the calmness of the
building,” he says.
Stanford’s strict architecture guidelines, which reference
its historical Romanesque quadrangle, have made it difficult
for contemporary architects to assert themselves. But
Windhover, the Anderson Collection building by Ennead
(record, December 2014, page 96), and the Diller Scofidio +
Renfro–designed McMurtry Art & Art History building,
currently under construction, are evidence that the university
is allowing more leeway for buildings designed for art.
Windhover’s long rectangular pavilion has a classic
minimalism. But here the lightness of glass and aluminum
is juxtaposed with the weight of rammed earth and wood
siding. “The rammed-earth walls are like ruins coming out
of the ground, which anchor and frame the entry sequence,”
MIND FLIGHT Nathan
Oliveira’s Windhover
paintings (above) were
inspired by kestrels
(also poetically called
windhovers for their
ability to hover in
midair) flying in the
nearby hills. His
painting studio in the
foothills just west of
campus was lit mostly
by a skylight, and the
design team used that
as a reference for the
lighting in Windhover.