The new quad breaks precedent in one key respect. While the inner quad is a desert sanctuary traversed by students rushing to classes, the new quad will be a grassy oasis, a place to linger under a dappled canopy of stone pines with soaring trunks that echo an encircling arcade. They want to sit outside and enjoy the California climate. Many of them came here for that very reason. No one can predict how Stanford's future inhabitants will regard today's additions.
Every generation reacts against what preceded it.
But whatever future critics may say, the campus is now growing with greater fidelity to the founder's vision. After decades of haphazard development, the campus landscape is once again an extension of its architecture. As they pass among flower beds and arches, sunlit tiles and shaded arcades, students will see that the smallest details help to express the whole. As a place restored, Stanford can be an example to those who would look beyond the ubiquitous influence of cars and other small-scale conveniences. The Stanford of the 21st century might not be perfect, but it does suggest that all the glories of 19th-century landscape design can live again.