Stanford Center for academic medicine honored for excellence in structural engineering

Stanford University School of Medicine’s new Center for Academic Medicine is a U-shaped, four-story building encompassing 170,000 square feet atop a three-story subterranean parking structure.

HOK designed the Center to provide respite for staff that work long hours in hospitals and clinics. It also accommodates their academic and research endeavors.

The building massing serves as a threshold between the Stanford Medicine academic and clinical campus in Palo Alto and the adjacent arboretum. Three narrow, interconnected office wings rise above a central courtyard, maximizing daylight offering views to nature from all vantage points.

HOK’s structural design supports the architectural vision while meeting Stanford’s rigorous seismic safety performance objectives. Structural features include using the latest design advances to meet seismic demands surpassing code-required performance, carefully coordinated buckling restrained braced frames, cantilevered roof trusses, two pedestrian bridges overlooking the courtyard and a heavily landscaped at-grade level.

“I would like to thank the Stanford School of Medicine for their commitment to great architecture, their commitment to the health and well-being of the people who would be occupying this building and their commitment to great infrastructure,” said Claire Moore, PE, SE, LEED AP BD+C, engineering practice leader in HOK’s San Francisco studio, in NCSEA’s awards presentation.

In addition to structural and MEP engineering, HOK provided architecture, interiors, landscape architecture, planning, sustainable design, energy modeling and workplace consulting services for the Center.

This is the fourth straight year HOK has won an NCSEA Excellence in Structural Engineering Award. Previous winners have included the Pedestrian Bridge at LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B (2020), the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Modernization (2019) and the Mercedes-Benz Stadium Halo Board (2018). Projects are judged on innovative design, engineering achievement and creativity.