Stanford and Palo Alto really aren't that interesting. It's a business community. Pretty corporate. A lot of pretension. Kind of soul crushing.

You either vibe with private equity and venture capital, or you don't. Absolutely no one in those communities cares about Taco Bell comparisons.

If you do care about architecture and style, California missions are where it's at. Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Carmel, Santa Cruz.

Absolutely no one is seeking out Stanford for the aesthetics.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taste is individual, so don't get angry at me if this is your thing, but I was quite underwhelmed. Campus looks like Taco Bell and the inside classrooms look like a strip mall insurance broker's office. At first I thought it looked like La Quinta hotels, but honestly La Quinta has much nicer interiors that most of the Stanford buildings. It may be newer but that isn't an excuse of bad architecture. Duke was built less than a 100 years ago and its campus is stunning.

The campus is usually drab and brown, like much of California. I'm always surprised when Stanford is lauded as one of the prettiest campuses in the U.S. It's a great school (one of my kids is there), but I agree it's rather ugly. Santa Clara University is much prettier!

Drab and brown is an apt description of most of the northeast, but I don't think it makes their schools ugly. Just a different context for local materials.

Anonymous wrote:Taste is individual, so don't get angry at me if this is your thing, but I was quite underwhelmed. Campus looks like Taco Bell and the inside classrooms look like a strip mall insurance broker's office. At first I thought it looked like La Quinta hotels, but honestly La Quinta has much nicer interiors that most of the Stanford buildings. It may be newer but that isn't an excuse of bad architecture. Duke was built less than a 100 years ago and its campus is stunning.

The campus is usually drab and brown, like much of California. I'm always surprised when Stanford is lauded as one of the prettiest campuses in the U.S. It's a great school (one of my kids is there), but I agree it's rather ugly. Santa Clara University is much prettier!

It’s like saying people unable to be elected or appointed can’t criticize a politician or judge.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd actually never bothered to google what Stanford looks like before this thread - but I have to say, I agree with the OP! Very Taco Bell-like. Not my style at all.

Don't worry. You won't have the decision anyways.

Why do you guys think this is such a witty comeback? Also, it makes it impossible for anyone to criticize any university.

Drone video …
https://www.google.com/search?q=stanford+drone&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:b93967f4,vid:Nat0CJZtc60,st:0

Anonymous wrote:I'd actually never bothered to google what Stanford looks like before this thread - but I have to say, I agree with the OP! Very Taco Bell-like. Not my style at all.

Don't worry. You won't have the decision anyways.

I'd actually never bothered to google what Stanford looks like before this thread - but I have to say, I agree with the OP! Very Taco Bell-like. Not my style at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the culturally ignorant:

Mission Revival: https://noehill.com/architects/style_mission_revival.aspx

Spanish Colonial Revival:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Colonial_Revival_architecture

California has an incredibly rich and diverse architecture, unlike the monoculture back East. Mission-style, Arts & Crafts, mid-century modern, energy efficient houses, googie, Victorian …

Lol. “Monoculture”? You need to check into rehab ASAP.

There are no Victorian houses in the East?!?

Nobody said that? The point is that California has an incredibly varied architecture, as opposed to East Coast cities that tend to be much more uniform (sometimes legally required through historical zoning code).

PP. I'm enjoying the WWF x architecture critic nature of this shitposting thread. Hopefully nobody is taking this post too seriously. For the record, though, I was born in a Bay Area town that has a whole book about what a banal monoculture it was. I can only think of two Mission/Spanish style prominent buildings there. Enjoy "Suburbia" by Bill Owens.

https://smoca.org/exhibition/bill-owens-suburbia/

Anonymous wrote:Even the University of Detroit has nicer Spanish architecture than Stanford:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipOtABPperm1VHyn7p81n0NWrkOoroi3svhyulxd=w636-h416-n-k-no

313 REPRESENT!!!!!

Anonymous wrote:Even the University of Detroit has nicer Spanish architecture than Stanford:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipOtABPperm1VHyn7p81n0NWrkOoroi3svhyulxd=w636-h416-n-k-no

I guess taste is subjective.

Even the University of Detroit has nicer Spanish architecture than Stanford:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipOtABPperm1VHyn7p81n0NWrkOoroi3svhyulxd=w636-h416-n-k-no

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the culturally ignorant:

Mission Revival: https://noehill.com/architects/style_mission_revival.aspx

Spanish Colonial Revival:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Colonial_Revival_architecture

California has an incredibly rich and diverse architecture, unlike the monoculture back East. Mission-style, Arts & Crafts, mid-century modern, energy efficient houses, googie, Victorian …

Lol. “Monoculture”? You need to check into rehab ASAP.

There are no Victorian houses in the East?!?

Nobody said that? The point is that California has an incredibly varied architecture, as opposed to East Coast cities that tend to be much more uniform (sometimes legally required through historical zoning code).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grow up. It's not a resort or a spa. It's an academic institution granting a world class education.

How grim.

The wretched architecture of the west coast combined with dour grimness and grind of an elite university.

“Wretched” lmao. Sorry that the west coast doesn’t have shitty dilapidated colonial buildings that look like depression statues in the winter.

Mission revival is really beautiful, especially in the areas with rolling hills and valleys. I still dislike the Stanford campus, but that’s more so, because it never ever ever ends and is in a suburb

The suburban aspect is really awful. It feels like a never-ending strip mall.

It really sucks because it had just a little bit more of a forested or non-suburban feel, it’d basically be California Duke for me

This is such an odd thing to say. That part of the peninsula is pretty dry and definitely not forested. Whatever you might think of the architecture, the campus overall is designed to allow students to soak in the area's climate and nature. This was actually one of Jane Stanford's goals. It's certainly not New England...and it's not even Berkeley which is much hillier and greener. But don't go to school on the peninsula if you don't like the feel of Stanford campus.

Are we really going to argue that Northern California lacks forested areas now...are you serious?

Is that what the post says? You want forest, go to Humboldt State ...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the culturally ignorant:

Mission Revival: https://noehill.com/architects/style_mission_revival.aspx

Spanish Colonial Revival:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Colonial_Revival_architecture

California has an incredibly rich and diverse architecture, unlike the monoculture back East. Mission-style, Arts & Crafts, mid-century modern, energy efficient houses, googie, Victorian …

Lol. “Monoculture”? You need to check into rehab ASAP.

There are no Victorian houses in the East?!?