Tresidder Union and Old Union

If you need a coffee, a restroom, a sandwich or a bike tire on a Stanford visit, you will probably end up at White Plaza. Two student unions frame it. Tresidder Memorial Union, a long 1960s building with patios on both sides, is the everyday hub for food and services. Old Union, a Spanish-style complex from the 1910s and 1920s, holds student government, cultural centers and the latest-closing burger counter on campus.

Both buildings are built for students, but much of what happens inside is open to anyone. This guide sorts out what visitors can use, what is reserved for the Stanford community and how the two buildings came to be. For campus transit and parking, start with our Stanford visitor guide.

Where they are

White Plaza sits just south of the Main Quad along Lasuen Mall. The Stanford Bookstore closes its east side and faces Old Union across the plaza. Tresidder lies just to the west at 459 Lagunita Drive, next to the Faculty Club and close to Dinkelspiel Auditorium. From the Oval, walk through the Main Quad and keep heading south. Allow about 10 minutes.

A Marguerite shuttle stop is behind Tresidder on Lagunita Drive. Disabled parking is across from Tresidder on Lagunita Drive, in the adjacent L-39 lot and on Santa Teresa Street near the Fire Truck House. For paid visitor parking, see our Stanford parking and transit guide.

Tresidder: what visitors can use

Stanford describes Tresidder as a hub for community activities, with dining options and ample patio seating on both sides of the building. Here is what you will find, based on the union's own listing of its tenants:

Our campus dining guide lists each Union Square counter with its published hours. The short version: the national chains in the food court keep weekend hours, while the smaller local counters close on weekends.

CoHo and the Campus Bike Shop

CoHo

The Coffee House, always called CoHo, is a Stanford institution. Tresidder's site says it was founded in 1966 as the Stanford Community Coffee House and has always been run by and for students as a place to socialize, study, eat, drink coffee and beer and catch performances. Stanford Magazine dates the Tresidder Coffee House to 1968, when it opened with student managers, an espresso machine that was ahead of its time and tables made from old nautical hatch covers. CoHo sits on the south side of the building and is reached from the west entrances by the back patio.

The Campus Bike Shop

The Campus Bike Shop, also on the south side, says it has served Stanford students, faculty, Bay Area neighbors and visiting families for more than 85 years. It calls itself the only bike shop on campus. It is the place to go for a flat tire or a quick adjustment. Our guides to biking in Palo Alto and bike shops cover rentals and routes beyond campus.

Upstairs and meeting rooms

The second floor holds the Oak Lounge and meeting rooms used for student and campus events, plus offices for the Dean of Students, the Vice Provost for Student Affairs and the Office of Community Standards. Student Affairs Meeting Services takes reservations from student groups, campus departments and external partners. If you are not attending an event, there is little reason to go upstairs, apart from the PostalAnnex.

Tresidder's history

The union is named for Donald Tresidder, Stanford's fourth president, who served from 1943 until his death in January 1948. He was a Stanford-trained physician who had run the Yosemite Park and Curry Company, where he oversaw construction of the Ahwahnee Hotel and the Badger Pass ski area. He died of a heart attack in New York at 53 while on university business.

According to Stanford Magazine, the campaign to replace the old union began in 1947 and students paid an assessment that covered part of the $2.675 million cost. The building, designed by the firm Spencer, Lee and Busse, opened in 1962. Time magazine called it a "handsome hacienda" and a "cultural filling station" in a story about the national boom in student unions. Early Tresidder had a 14-lane bowling alley, a pool hall, music listening rooms with a 900-album collection and an art lending library. The bowling lanes are long gone, but one tenant stayed put. Barber Carmelo Cogliandro moved his shop from Old Union to Tresidder in 1962, the origin of today's Stanford Hair.

Old Union: what is inside

Old Union, at 520 Lasuen Mall, is the central building of a three-building complex with the Old Union Clubhouse and the Nitery. Stanford describes it as the main hub for student activities. Inside:

• The Axe and Palm: The campus burger and milkshake counter, open late every night. Hours are listed in our dining guide.
• On Call Café: A late-night study cafe with coffee and snacks.
• CIRCLE: The Center for Inter-Religious Community, Learning and Experiences on the third floor, with an interfaith sanctuary, a common room and a library. It keeps the same hours as the building.
• Student offices: The Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU), the Office of Student Engagement, the Office for Religious and Spiritual Life and the First-Generation and/or Low-Income Student Success Center.

The Clubhouse holds the Asian American Activities Center and the Native American Cultural Center. The Nitery houses a black-box theater, El Centro Chicano y Latino and the Markaz Resource Center. These centers serve students. Visitors are best off sticking to the cafes, the ground floor lounge and public events. Our page on theater in Palo Alto covers stages open to the public.

Old Union's history

The Stanford Historical Society explains that the three Old Union buildings went up between 1915 and 1923 to serve as women's housing and as the university's first student union. The San Francisco firm Bakewell and Brown, which also designed Green Library and Memorial Auditorium, gave the complex its Spanish Colonial look. Over time housing gave way to student offices and activities.

Tresidder took over as the main student center in the early 1960s. Old Union was then renovated to complement it. Records compiled by the University of Washington's Pacific Coast Architecture Database describe a $24 million renovation between 2005 and 2007, which added a large ground floor cafe and lounge and brought student groups back into the complex.

Frequently asked questions