Stanford Universitys campus is a stately Californian milieu designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidgethe Bostonian progeny of H. H. Richardson which just celebrated 150 years of practice. Its late 19th-century architecture harkens back to East Coast schools of an equal, albeit much older caliber like Harvard, Yale, et al. Later additions by SOM, William Wurster, SWA, and others dot the illustrious 8,180-acre locale. A new administrative building at Stanford University by Olson Kundig and SWA takes cues from the campuss understated midcentury modernism, architects shared. The new building hosts the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University, a research center that combines legal scholars, humanists, public policy practitioners, philosophers, and technical experts.The 1,700-square-foot facility is a milestone for Stanfordthere hadnt been a new ground-up project on the campus since 1954. That year, CASBS was founded with help from the Ford Foundation, and it moved into a new small complex to the campuss south across from Juniperro Serra Boulevard.The building is the first new structure on Stanfords campus since 1954. (Aaron Leitz/Courtesy Olson Kundig)The original CASBS building from 1954 was designed by William Wurster, the San Francisco architect who founded the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley with Catherine Bauer. The new building by Olson Kundig and SWA, completed in 2024, isnt aesthetically far off from the Wurster project.The new building was called for in a 2015 master plan for Stanford by EHDD, a San Francisco architecture firm. Olson Kundig joined the project team in 2016, and successive schematic design phases ensued the following years with SWA. According to Olson Kundig, the administration building was intentionally designed in order to complement the understated midcentury architecture of the existing campus. It frames the final open edge of CASBSs campus, Olson Kundig added.The narrow footprint afforded architects the opportunity to provide ample natural daylighting. (Aaron Leitz/Courtesy Olson Kundig)The Olson Kundig and SWA facility faces a historic courtyard with outdoor gathering spaces for lectures, and informal exchanges between students and faculty. The new architecture has a loggia which faces the courtyard, taking advantage of the temperate climate. Ample natural daylight washes over the interior spaces thanks to generous fenestration.The building frames the research centers northern edge. (Aaron Leitz/Courtesy Olson Kundig)The research center is a place for legal scholars, humanists, public policy practitioners, philosophers, and technical experts. (Aaron Leitz/Courtesy Olson Kundig)Margaret Levi, CASBSs former director, helped raise much of the funding for the project. Sarah Soule, the research centers current director, said in a statement the new building is a perfect physical manifestation of Margarets vision for CASBS and the social and behavioral sciences more generally.Shoule added Levi believes that to solve the worlds grand challenges, scholars need to work in a non-traditional way. And to solve todays systemic problems, we need systemic solutions. This building heralds a new era of interdisciplinary collaboration and discovery at CASBS. It enables us to further realize our mission of leveraging interdisciplinary research in service of solutions for some of the worlds most vexing challenges.