Packard Engineering Building: Flad Architects. Palo Alto, CA. 67400 sqft.

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The Packard building, designed and completed by Pei Cobb & Partners in 1999 is a 3-story tall structure housing the Electrical Engineering curriculum at Stanford University. The original design features a dramatic eastern entry stair tower "prow", which is extended into a monolithic, cathedral-like atrium space that's natural lit by a large skylight. Although a historically important gateway to the Stanford Engineering quad, the existing Packard building no longer satisfies the needs of the modern engineering curriculum, which requires better visibility, technological integration, and a more collaborative teaching/learning/research process.
In our design for the new Packard interior, we addressed these needs without disrespecting the historicism of the original design. Our intervention includes opening up the first floor slab to bring much-needed natural daylight into the basement level, where most of the undergraduate classrooms are located. To activate the atrium space, we proposed a central cascading stair and introduced glazing and "pop-outs" at the south interior wall to bring the courses and research activities to light and visibility. Finally, we re-envisioned the prow as a collaboration, exhibition, and event space-- a place for displaying EE achievements and on-going activities to rest of the campus and the general public.