In 2009, Stanford Health Care began the journey to create a new, state-of-the art facility that would replace the existing 50-year-old hospital. The design team proposed an abstraction of the previous Edward Durell Stone and Thomas Church complex; a checkerboard of landscape and hospital programs that references the scale of the University Quad designed by Frederic Law Olmsted and H.H. Richardson.

Stanford’s intention is to set the highest possible standard for the patient experience of healing - by combining a human-centered landscape with state-of-the-art technology and hotel-like amenities. Four acres of landscape are provided on the 12-acre site while the base-isolation system, carefully integrated into the landscape, is designed to maintain uninterrupted service for two weeks following a major earthquake.

Two acres of landscape are located on the third floor above sensitive operating rooms and the three-story parking garage. The public arrival and orientation experience occurs on this masonry clad third floor garden level that relates to the height and materials of Stanford’s historic Quad. Above the masonry base, glassy towers with patient rooms are meant to dematerialize into reflections of the sky. The gardens accommodate conference facilities, executive offices and ambulatory spaces informed by the therapeutic power of nature, attending to the social, emotional and physical needs of patients and families, while also offering healthcare workers a healthy and restorative workplace. This approach allows the facility to integrate a holistic approach to wellness, addressing of the entire health care community simultaneously.

Another two acres of open space on the ground level integrates immersive gardens with the extensive infrastructure required for the building to function independently following an earthquake. The ‘Orchard of Medicinal Trees’ is the gateway symbol for the new hospital and includes ginkgo, loquat, apricot, olive, oak and buckeye, which are key species of importance to eastern, western and native American cultures. Gingko and loquat represent the east, olive and apricot represent the West, and oak and buckeye relate to indigenous cultures. The linear forms recall the history of agriculture in the Santa Clara Valley and to serve the additional function of screening the garage while welcoming people to the state-of-the-art facility.

To irrigate this landscape, the design team utilized the condensation created by the hospital’s air conditioning systems to turn what would be a waste product into a valuable resource to reduce water usage. Vegetation on the third level provides soft permeable surfaces which absorb water and moderate heat gain. The site wide planting design utilizes a mix of drought-tolerant and native California plants that results in an 30% reduction in water consumption for irrigation while providing a variety of textures and seasonal colors to stimulate the senses.

The Entry Plaza has a circular drop-off that flows seamlessly into a grove of 31 Southern live oaks creating an outdoor living room for the hospital. High quality paving, flush and curbless surfaces, and ample seating connects the drop-off and plaza to a new promenade that continues Thomas Church’s line of Chinese elms, linking his mid-century fountain to the new Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital and the larger Stanford campus.