Stanford Neuroscience Health Center

A New Model for Integrated Neuroscience Care

client

Stanford Health Care
location

Palo Alto, CA
size

92,000 SF

A groundbreaking hub for comprehensive neurological care, the 92,000-square-foot TEF-designed Stanford Neuroscience Health Center brings together specialists from 21 subspecialties in a first-of-its-kind collaborative environment.

A Comprehensive Care Destination

Bright healthcare lobby with a wood-slat ceiling, reception desk, built-in seating, floor-to-ceiling windows, and visitors and staff using the space.

Bright outpatient treatment area with wood cabinetry, an accessible sink, glass-enclosed care bays, large windows, and patients and clinical staff using the space.

Clinical exam room with a large window, reclining exam chair, diagnostic equipment, accessible scale, guest seating, and a clinician entering information at a wall-mounted computer.

Flexible meeting and presentation room with rows of white chairs, a wood-slat ceiling, wall-mounted display, mirrored wall, and floor-to-ceiling windows.

The design consolidates all aspects of the healing journey in a physically and emotionally supportive care environment, eliminating the need for multiple visits and destinations.

Blue-walled rehabilitation corridor with handrails, where a patient walks toward two clinicians in white coats at the far end.

Clinician adjusting a safety harness on a patient standing in an immersive rehabilitation system with overhead support cables and a projected virtual environment.

Fulfilling the Hoover Campus Vision

Located adjacent to TEF’s Hoover Pavilion renovation, the center completes the Hoover Campus, a key component of Stanford Health Care’s landmark renewal program. The Center’s exterior takes its cue in composition, scale, and materiality from its Art Deco neighbor, integrating terracotta panels and vertical strips with windows that echo the clay bands of fenestration in the older building. A unitized glass curtain wall, exterior terraces, and a continuous aluminum fin sunshade assert the building’s own identity while remaining deferential to the landmark next door.

Close-up of the Neuroscience Health Center entrance canopy and signage reflected across the building’s glass façade.

Pedestrian-oriented campus street between the modern Neuroscience Health Center and a historic hospital building, with trees, landscaping, and people walking through the plaza.

Outdoor terrace at the Neuroscience Health Center with white tables and chairs, staff and visitors gathering, and views of the adjacent historic hospital building.

Designed with Patients, for Patients

A Patient Advisory Council and caregivers were directly involved in every aspect of the center’s design to accommodate the unique sensitivities of people with neurological disorders. From ambient lighting and restrained, light-colored finishes to quiet waiting areas and easy-to-navigate hallways, significant design considerations support patient comfort and convenience.

Sunlit healthcare lobby with a self-service check-in screen, curved reception desk, floor-to-ceiling windows, indoor plants, and staff and visitors using the space.

Healthcare waiting area with lounge seating, colorful artwork, a floor directory, and patients and visitors seated beneath suspended linear lights.

Clinical exam area with a large sliding wood door, a patient seated beside an accessible sink, a clinician walking through the room, and staff working at adjacent open workstations.

Wood-paneled lobby wall with large mixed-media artwork, a visitor seated on a bench using his phone, and another person walking past.

Purpose-Built for Neurological care

The building integrates specialists in neurology, neurosurgery, and interventional neuroradiology to work side-by-side, enabling rapid sharing of team expertise and data, supported by access to unprecedented research, clinical trials, and technology – most notably, a dedicated clinical PET/MRI and an Autonomic Lab with one of the first thermoregulatory sweat labs in the nation.

CT imaging suite illuminated with blue ambient lighting, featuring a scanner and patient table while a technician operates a ceiling-mounted control unit.

PET/MR imaging room with a GE Signa scanner, patient table, wall-mounted monitor, built-in cabinetry, and organized imaging accessories.

Rehabilitation gym with patients and clinicians using body-weight support equipment, parallel bars, training stairs, a recumbent exercise machine, and other therapy stations.

Accelerated Project Delivery

To speed up the entitlement process and de-couple it from client approvals, the team split the overall scope into shell and core and TI packages and ran them on separate tracks, saving four calendar months of construction and approval efforts. The structural engineer recommended ConX, a modular prefabricated steel framing system developed by Bay Area company ConXtech, eliminating the noise and mess of welding. Steel erection was completed in three weeks instead of three to four months, at a cost of about $200,000 less than conventional construction.