Windhover Contemplative Center set to reopen in spring

Published Jan. 26, 2025, 7:25 p.m., last updated Jan. 27, 2025, 11:36 a.m.

A fixture of west campus for the past decade, the Windhover Contemplative Center has been closed indefinitely to visitors after intense storms damaged the building in March of 2023. The center sustained further damage in the winter of 2024. With recently secured city approval, the restoration process is now expected to be complete by mid-April this year.

First opened in 2014, Windhover is a technology-free zone intended for contemplation, meditation and personal wellbeing. Visitors are encouraged to use the space as a sanctuary from the pressures of daily life. Typically open to all Stanford affiliates with docent-led tours available to the public, the center’s recent closure leaves few places on campus designated as technology-free.

The center, located on West campus across from Roble Arts Gym, was originally designed to house acclaimed painter and former Stanford professor Nathan Oliveira’s “Windhover” series, including a large, abstract oil painting titled “Big Red” that hung at the front of the building. The San Francisco-based architecture firm Aiden Darling Design designed the building to bridge the art and the natural environment on campus. The building’s wide windows were designed to capture maximal natural light and allow visitors to view the artwork from outside. 

Due to the building’s unique structure as well as Santa Clara building codes, the reconstruction process was slowed. According to U.S. Housing and Urban Development data, Santa Clara is one of a number of Bay Area counties which are issuing fewer permits with lengthier application processes. 

“Part of the process was applying for a building permit with the Santa Clara County building department,” Laura Goldstein, the director of Project Management for the department of Land, Buildings, and Real Estate (LBRE) wrote in an email to The Daily. “This is required before work can start.”

According to Goldstein, LBRE learned just last week that the permit was ready for pickup. With this major development, “project planning will begin soon with the General Contractor organizing all sub-contractors required to perform the work.”

Goldstein confirmed that the original architecture firm, Aiden Darling Designs, and general contractor initially hired to build the center will be a part of the reconstruction process. Much of the work must be done under specific weather conditions, which further complicates the timeline for construction, although no major redesigns are planned. “The scope of work is restoration and repair only,” Goldstein wrote.

Despite being a secular structure, programming at Windhover is managed by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (ORSL). Rev. Dr. Tiffany Steinwert, dean of ORSL, said in an interview with The Daily that “despite the culture of moving fast — there’s always space for contemplation” on campus, an ethos that can feel foreign in the business of campus life.

To Steinwert, the center represents one of many ORSL programs designed to bring students together in community. “When you have a community that gathers, that helps people hold the practice of contemplation in a different way,” she added.

Some students have put Steinwert’s vision into action. “There was a group of us my freshman year that used to walk over and go meditate together and it was really nice,” said Phil Baillargeon ’24. “I’m glad it’s on its way back.”

The ORSL has a number of offerings for students interested in contemplative programs while Windhover remains closed for construction. Stanford affiliates are welcomed at weekly yoga classes in Memorial Church or guided meditations in Old Union.

This article has been corrected to reflect that Windhover was initially damaged by storms in March 2023 instead of winter of last year. The Daily regrets this error.



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