Windhover Contemplative Center

The Windhover Contemplative Center is a spiritual retreat on the Stanford campus to promote and inspire personal renewal. Using Nathan Oliveira's Windhover paintings as a vehicle, the chapel-like center provides a refuge from the intensity of daily life and a space for quiet reflection. The extended progression to the sanctuary’s entry allows visitors to shed the outside world before entering. Within, the space opens to the oak glade beyond while louvered skylights wash the paintings with natural light, unifying art, architecture, and landscape. Rammed earth walls, wood surfaces, and water heighten the visitor's sensory experience acoustically, tactilely, olfactorily, and visually. The center is designed in collaboration with Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture. Rammed earth wall by Rammed Earth Works.