Windhover Contemplative Center

Windhover is a small, low building on Santa Teresa Street that most people walk right past. Its walls are rammed earth, its windows are tall and deep and inside hang large paintings by Nathan Oliveira of birds suspended in wind. Stanford built it in 2014 as a place for its students, faculty and staff to sit in silence. Phones stay off, food stays out and nobody gives a talk.

Visitors should know one thing up front: the building is for Stanford ID holders. The grounds, though, are open and the outdoor labyrinth beside the building is free to walk at any hour. This guide covers the paintings, the architecture, the rules of entry and what you can see without a card.

What Windhover is

Stanford's Office for Religious and Spiritual Life describes Windhover as a spiritual refuge meant to inspire personal renewal. It is deliberately not religious. The university wanted a place where people under academic pressure could slow down, without any particular faith attached. It sits alongside other quiet places on campus, from Memorial Church to the CIRCLE sanctuary in Old Union.

The building opened to the campus community on October 9, 2014, the day after a private dedication. It is about 4,000 square feet on one floor. Inside, a series of connected rooms holds the paintings. At the back, a reflection pool sits beyond the glass. When it opened, the Stanford Daily reported that visitors were expected to take off their shoes before going in.

Nathan Oliveira and the paintings

Nathan Oliveira (1928 to 2010) was born in Oakland to a family of Portuguese immigrants. He studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts and, in the summer of 1950, with the German painter Max Beckmann at Mills College. He became a leading figure in the Bay Area figurative movement. In 1959 he was the youngest painter in the Museum of Modern Art's landmark show New Images of Man. He taught studio art at Stanford for more than 30 years and three of his paintings hang in the nearby Anderson Collection.

In the 1990s Oliveira began painting the flight of kestrels he watched hovering in the Stanford hills near his studio. The curved, swooping forms became his Windhover series, named after "The Windhover," a poem Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote in 1877 about a falcon riding the wind. Stanford describes five paintings in the series. Oliveira felt they had a calming power and should hang together in a place set aside for contemplation.

That idea took nearly 20 years to realize. In 1995 Suzanne Sumerlin Duca, a former lecturer in art history and a collector of his work, took up the cause. She, the university and a group of volunteers raised support, chose a site and picked a design. Oliveira died in 2010 before construction began and his son Joseph Oliveira took his place on the committee. Donors named by Stanford include Reece Duca, Van and Diana Huston Brady, Sheila Duignan and Michael Wilkins.

The building and garden

The San Francisco firm Aidlin Darling Design designed Windhover. The approach is part of the design. You walk alongside the building first, catching only glimpses of the paintings, before you reach the entrance. Materials are few and natural: Corten steel, rammed earth walls, stone, glass and water. The Stanford Daily reported at the opening that the rammed earth walls and thick glass would also block cell and internet signals, which keeps the building free of devices.

Andrea Cochran designed the landscape. A stone path, a row of ginkgo trees and a bamboo grove lead to the building. An old oak grove wraps the courtyard on the south side and granite ledges and slabs offer places to sit outdoors. The glass walls were designed so some of the art can be seen from outside, which matters for visitors who cannot go in.

Who can go inside

Stanford's visitor page sets clear rules, so plan around them:

Each person entering is asked to swipe their own card. Alumni can pick up a building access card at the front desk of the Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center, 326 Galvez Street, during business hours. That is next to the Stanford Visitor Center, so it is easy to combine.

Docent tours once let the public see the interior. Stanford's page now says docent tours are cancelled until further notice.

Hours and rules

According to the Windhover visitor page, the building is open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. It closes on university holidays and during the winter closure. Holidays listed include Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Thanksgiving break.

• Technology free: Visitors are asked not to use phones, laptops, tablets or cameras inside.
• No food or drink inside the building.
• Accessibility: According to Stanford's campus spaces office, the main entrance is reached by a decomposed granite path on the west side and has a power-operated door. Accessible restrooms are at the front of the building and disabled parking is next to it.

Storm damage and repairs

Windhover has not always been open. The Stanford Daily reported that storms damaged the building in March 2023, with more damage in the winter of 2024. The building closed while the university obtained a county building permit and the original architect and contractor returned for a repair-only restoration, which the Daily said was expected to finish in spring 2025. Stanford's pages now welcome visitors back, but check the official page before making a special trip.

The labyrinth: open to everyone

Beside the building is an outdoor labyrinth modeled on the 12th century stone labyrinth in the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France. Stanford says it can be used by all visitors at any hour of the day.

A labyrinth is not a maze. There is one path with no dead ends. It loops back and forth toward a rosette at the center, where you can pause as long as you like, then you follow the same path out. People use it to walk off stress, to pray or simply to think. A slow walk in and out takes 10 to 20 minutes.

1. Start at the opening and walk at your own pace. Step aside to let faster walkers pass.
2. Pause in the center if you want to.
3. Return by the same path.
4. Afterward, sit on the granite ledges under the oaks before moving on.

Memorial Church also has a portable labyrinth that it lays out for public walking on some Wednesday mornings. Check the church's calendar if you want to try both.

Getting there and what is nearby

Windhover is at 370 Santa Teresa Street, at the corner of Samuel Morris Way, across from Roble Hall. Marguerite shuttle stops are at Santa Teresa Street and Lomita Drive on weekdays. Visitor parking nearby is paid through ParkMobile; read the zone sign where you park. Our Stanford parking and transit guide explains how it works.

The Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden is right next door, so a visit to both takes under an hour. Lake Lagunita is a short walk south and the Main Quad is about ten minutes east.

Frequently asked questions