1999 Annual Report Essay
Stanford Board of Trustees Chair Robert Bass
Stanford recently observed a 10-year anniversary that is inauspicious at best: the Loma Prieta earthquake. No one who was on campus on October 17, 1989, will forget the 7.1-magnitude temblor that damaged more than 200 Stanford buildings.
The Loma Prieta earthquake has served as a reminder of the importance of our “physical endowment”—the 8,180 acres of land and 678 buildings entrusted to our care. In the coming years, Stanford will increasingly seek to build appropriate resources in support of its “human endowment”— the students and faculty whose relationship is the fundamental purpose of the University. But, as trustees, we must assiduously sustain the “sandstone arches and cloisters and the red-tiled roofs against the azure sky” that are integral to the Stanford experience. In this effort, we are indebted to the hundreds of alumni and friends, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, whose support has helped rebuild Stanford stronger and safer than before. Indeed, a plaque has been placed in the inner Quad in their honor.
Leland and Jane Stanford wisely decreed in their Founding Grant that the lands they gave to the University should never be sold, but rather used to further academic objectives. Our founders took great care in the campus plan and construction of Stanford, engaging the best architects of their time and closely supervising their work and that of contractors and artisans. Our actions in managing our land and buildings are continuously guided by the purpose and legacy of the Stanfords, who created a model for university design unlike anything seen before in America.
Over the past 10 years, we have restored and renewed our facilities to meet the changing nature of teaching, learning, and research. More than two-thirds of the construction investment has involved renovation, repair, or seismic strengthening of current space. The other one-third has added new buildings for expanding and evolving programs.
Among the historically significant buildings that have been enhanced are Memorial Church and large portions of the Main Quad, Encina Hall, the Leland Stanford Junior Museum (now part of the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts), and Frank Lloyd Wright's Hanna House. The State of California recognized Stanford for “outstanding achievements in the field of historic preservation” with the Governor's Historic Preservation Award for 1999.
Most recently, Stanford reopened the Bing Wing of the Cecil H. Green Library, the old main library. Formerly known as Green Library West, the wing honors trustee Peter Bing and Helen Bing, who made the major gift in restoring the library following an initial gift from Mel and Joan Lane.
As the University continues into its second century, campus planning and development has realized plans dating almost to the beginnings of Stanford that called for a science quadrangle to be built west of the Main Quad. The Science and Engineering Quadrangle and the Serra Mall were completed and inaugurated in the fall. The quad includes the David Packard Electrical Engineering Building, honoring the 1934 Stanford graduate who co-founded Hewlett-Packard and whose gift, along with that of Bill Hewlett, made the quad possible.
The campus continues to grow and evolve. In the near future, we look forward to opening the Center for Clinical Sciences Research adjacent to the Medical School and the new Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center near Frost Amphitheater.
Stanford is blessed with a physical endowment second to none. We will work to protect and enhance that endowment as we invest in the faculty and students it serves.