University leaders are drawing up plans for a new, stand-alone North Campus in Redwood City. Land that has been acquired off of US-101 will likely be used for administrative offices and Medical Center outpatient facilities. The campus, which will be seven miles north of the University’s core, is a central part of the school’s growth strategy.

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Burt McMurtry discussed the Board of Trustees’ recent meeting at a media availability session yesterday. The Board focused on the University’s plans to build a new campus seven miles north of Stanford in Redwood City. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/7979
Masaru Oka

Burt McMurtry discussed the Board of Trustees’ recent meeting at a media availability session yesterday. The Board focused on the University’s plans to build a new campus seven miles north of Stanford in Redwood City.

On Monday and Tuesday, members of the Board of Trustees reviewed six plans for the auxiliary area, including some with wide interior spaces and others with offices that are more clustered. Some of the buildings on the site of the new campus are currently occupied or being leased.

“It’s not across the street but it’s not a long way,” said Burt McMurtry M.S. ‘59, Ph.D. ‘62, chair of the Board of Trustees, during a Wednesday press availability session. “A lot of thought has gone into what is the master plan for that campus. We want it to be a campus. It won’t look like the Quad, but there’s a lot of thought going into how we can make it look like a part of the central campus.”

One top priority in all new construction projects is sustainability.

“We’re not just talking about it but investing a fair amount,” McMurtry said, noting that sustainability is a priority even when it cannot be justified financially. “Stanford has a long time horizon. We should take advantage of every opportunity we can to build sustainability.”

Another priority for the new building is making sure that adequate parking is provided.

“We have seldom got that right,” McMurtry said. “It’s a hard problem. We’re going to try really hard to have parking not be a disadvantage of being there.”

The planning is still in its early stages, McMurtry said, and many employees are working on the project.

McMurtry stressed that the new campus is not a short-term stopgap to cope with more employees or staff, but part of a long-term growth strategy.

“We see it as a permanent addition to Stanford,” he said. “It’s going to be that, how do we make it look and feel so that it will be satisfactory to the people on campus.”

The lion’s share of the two-day meeting was dedicated to discussions about new buildings and land use. The Board made approvals that will help several building projects continue along the path to construction, including one for the Black Community Service Center and The Daily.

The trustees also were briefed on the Stanford endowment fund’s 23 percent growth to $17.2 billion last year. McMurtry said that senior officials have been very pleased since they had expected “quite low returns for a long period of time” after the tech bubble burst in 2000.

“It makes a huge difference,” he said, “in the flexibility we have to engage in bold initiatives.”