President John Hennessy and a panel of University officials discussed construction on the Stanford campus at the fortieth annual Academic Council meeting Thursday afternoon.

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University President John Hennessy spoke to faculty about promoting the construction of energy-efficient buildings during the annual meeting of the Academic Council held in Cubberly Auditorium. Panelists also emphasized the need for flexible meeting spaces and housing interdisciplinary departments under a single roof. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/9200
Mehmet Inonu

University President John Hennessy spoke to faculty about promoting the construction of energy-efficient buildings during the annual meeting of the Academic Council held in Cubberly Auditorium. Panelists also emphasized the need for flexible meeting spaces and housing interdisciplinary departments under a single roof.

“Over the next three or four years we will be engaged in a building program whose scale is larger than anything since the earliest days of the University,” Hennessy said.

The construction, which includes a new building to house the Graduate School of Business, a new lab for the School of Medicine and the completion of a second Science and Engineering Quad, will focus on energy conservation and flexibility, panelists said.

Rising energy prices and environmental concerns have driven Stanford to attempt to build cost- and energy-efficient buildings, Hennessy told assembled faculty, students and community members.

He said that the University would apply lessons learned in the construction of the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building, which was dedicated last March, to bring the entire Science and Engineering Quad “to the same environmental standards.”

The ability to adapt the same room for multiple purposes has become crucial as rooms, even in professional schools, must be used for lectures, seminars and small group breakout sessions.

“We need to build things flexible,” said Business School Senior Associate Dean David Kreps, “so that the same space can be reconfigured quickly and efficiently to meet different needs on different days.”

Panelists also emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in planning for the buildings. Many of the new facilities “will house programs from a number of different schools, independent labs, centers and institutes under the same roof,” said Vice Provost and Dean of Research Ann Arvin.

All of these needs must be met while maintaining the Farm’s traditional ambience — which is no easy task, according to University Architect David Lenox.

“We are looking for a way to do inspiring buildings and still have them fit into the Stanford context,” Lenox said. “And that’s hard.”