McMurtry dedication celebrates unique space for making and studying art
A new era for the Department of Art & Art History began with the fall 2015 opening of the McMurtry Building, the department’s 100,000-square-foot new home. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the distinctive space brings together facilities that support both the making and the studying of art.
Every aspect of the building’s innovative design aims to create synergy between the two disciplines.
Drawing and painting studios, a printmaking lab and film editing suites are located throughout the building in proximity to classrooms and the Ute & Bill Bowes Art & Architecture Library. Oshman Hall, with its retractable seats, can be transformed into a performance space or an art gallery, and its garage-style glass door can be opened to the Cantor Arts Center lawn.
There are spaces to gather and to collaborate on each level. The light-filled, open-air ground floor includes an art gallery, a café and a sculpture that doubles as an informal studying and meeting place. Atrium stairways lead to the second-level terrace and the third-floor rooftop garden, which is divided into smaller seating areas for outdoor meetings.
The McMurtry’s dedication ceremonies on Oct. 6 celebrated the building as a dynamic center for the visual arts and an important resource for integrating the arts into university life. In formal remarks, President John Hennessy shared the guiding vision for the McMurtry Building and the Stanford arts district as a whole: “We wanted every student – whatever their majors, whatever their interests – to know and experience the arts as central to their daily lives.”
Learn more about the McMurtry in a feature that includes a series of photos showcasing the building’s architecture and a video highlighting its extraordinary potential to take the arts at Stanford to the next level.