Stanford settles into city

The campus is also home to a recreation and wellness center with a rooftop pool and basketball court but, aside from the outdoor areas and a Stanford Credit Union opening this summer, the only publicly accessible space on site is the Cardinal Café and adjoining dining room, located on the ground-level of one of the office buildings. The cafe is currently open for breakfast and lunch — menu offerings include sushi, poke bowls, sandwiches, salad and dessert — but hours will expand beyond the current closing time of 2 p.m. to about 6 p.m. in the coming months.

Located about a mile and a half from downtown Redwood City, Stanford’s new 35-acre campus is the first significant expansion beyond its main campus in Santa Clara County. It joined the existing Stanford Medicine Outpatient Center, located across Broadway.

“The university was drawn to Redwood City’s vibrant downtown, robust public transportation infrastructure, relative closeness to the main campus and visionary culture,” said Lucy Wicks, director of government and community relations. “Stanford Redwood City is central to Stanford’s core mission and has provided us a single, integrated, accessible and convenient location in a vibrant and dynamic community for many years to come.”

The architecture of Stanford’s Redwood City campus with French limestone exteriors and terra cotta design elements is meant to match its main one.

Several public artwork by Charles Ginnever have been installed in the central area of the campus and additional public art will be added in the future, Wicks said.

The park still under construction will be attractively landscaped and equipped with benches. Wicks said it’s meant to complement the wide greenway through the center of the campus and help transition it into the neighboring community and adjacent public park. The outdoor plaza areas will also commemorate important periods of land use on the project site, including farming, flower fields, one of the Peninsula’s first airfields and a center for technology innovation, including the company Ampex, Wicks said.

The opening of the park and adjacent child care center this fall will mark the completion of the first phase of construction of Stanford’s Redwood City campus. In the coming years, development will extend north — the university owns the entire block from Second Avenue to Douglas Avenue — and those new buildings will be the workplace of an additional 2,300 or so employees.

“We appreciate the way Redwood City residents have welcomed us throughout the entire planning and design process for this new campus,” Wicks said. “Since the construction fences came down, we’ve seen neighbors walking around and taking a look at the campus and people are beginning to visit the cafe.”

Wicks added that the project has brought funding for local street improvements and community events in Courthouse Square as well as support for the Redwood City Education Foundation. The university’s Graduate School of Business also offers entrepreneurial boot camp and management-training programs designed for Redwood City residents and business leaders.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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