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Stanford Memorial Auditorium

1937 in CaliforniaArthur Brown Jr. buildingsBuildings and structures completed in 1937Mediterranean Revival architecture in CaliforniaStanford University buildings and structures
Stanford University from Hoover Tower May 2011 001
Stanford University from Hoover Tower May 2011 001

Memorial Hall (informally referred to as MemAud), was built in 1937 to commemorate those students and faculty from Stanford University who died in World War I. Designed by Arthur Brown, Jr. in conjunction with Bakewell and Weihe, construction of the building was funded primarily through student contributions. Prominent features of the building include a great central arched entry, large arched entries on the sides, covered colonnades on the sides, bare wall surfaces in rectangular segments, and a red tile roof typical of many Stanford buildings. In addition to containing a main auditorium with 1,700 seats (Memorial Auditorium proper), it also houses the drama department; Pigott Theater, a "little" theater with 200 seats; and Prosser Studio Theater, which seats 60. Some modifications to the auditorium's facade were made in 1997 by Sebastian and Associates, including new entry stairs, terrace, and accessibility ramp. Memorial Auditorium, as the largest indoor performance space at Stanford, is the site of performances, major speeches, academic conferences and student activities. Hot Chips, a symposium on hardware chips sponsored by IEEE, is held each summer in MemAud. In terms of student activities, much of New Student Orientation takes place inside the auditorium; Flicks, the Stanford movie service, screens movies in MemAud once every week; and Gaieties, a major part of the Big Game activities, takes place there in the days before the actual game. Major speaker events are commonly held in MemAud because of its size, such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s "The Other America" speech on April 14, 1967, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev in 1990, and the Dalai Lama's visits in 2005 and 2010.

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Stanford Memorial Auditorium
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Stanford University

Panama Mall 408
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California, United States
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Stanford University from Hoover Tower May 2011 001
Stanford University from Hoover Tower May 2011 001
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Hoover Tower
Hoover Tower

Hoover Tower is a 285 feet (87 m) structure on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California. The tower houses the Hoover Institution Library and Archives, an archive collection founded by Herbert Hoover before he became President of the United States. Hoover had amassed a large collection of materials related to early 20th century history; he donated them to Stanford, his alma mater, to found a "library of war, revolution and peace". Hoover Tower also houses the Hoover Institution research center and think tank. Hoover Tower, inspired by the tower at the New Cathedral of Salamanca, was finished in 1941, the year of Stanford's 50th anniversary. It was designed by architect Arthur Brown, Jr.The first nine floors of the tower are library stacks and the next three floors are used for offices. Exiled Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn lived on the 11th floor for some time upon invitation by Stanford University before he moved in 1976. Hoover Tower receives approximately 200 visitors per day, and a nominal fee is charged for non-students or non-faculty. The observation deck platform is 250 feet (76 m) above the ground, and provides an expansive view of the Stanford University campus and surrounding area. On clear days it is possible to see all the way to the distant skyline of San Francisco. The tower's observation deck is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., but closed during academic breaks and finals. In December 1970, Hoover Tower was struck by lightning, causing a 300-pound ornamental concrete ball to fall from the top of the tower onto a parking lot. In August 2020 the concrete ball at the tower's tip was struck down by an electric storm again, scattering into multiple pieces.

Hoover Institution

The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace is a conservative American public policy institution and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, and limited government. Located in Stanford, California, on the campus of Stanford University, it began as a library founded in 1919 by Stanford alumnus Herbert Hoover, before he became President of the United States. The library, known as the Hoover Institution Library and Archives, houses multiple archives related to Hoover, World War I, World War II, and other world-historical events. The Hoover Institution has been a place of scholarship for individuals who previously held high-profile positions in government, such as George Shultz, Condoleezza Rice, Michael Boskin, Edward Lazear, John B. Taylor, Edwin Meese, and Amy Zegart—all Hoover Institution fellows. In 2007, retired U.S. Army General John P. Abizaid, former commander of the U.S. Central Command, was named the Institution's first annual Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow. Former Secretary of Defense General James Mattis served as a research fellow at Hoover before being appointed by the Trump administration.Hoover was ranked as the tenth most influential think tank in the world in 2020 by Academic Influence, and the 22nd of the "Top Think Tanks in the United States" by the Global Go To Think Tank Index Report in 2019 (Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program, University of Pennsylvania).While the Hoover Institution is formally a unit of Stanford University, it has its own board of overseers and less than 2% of its funding come from the university; instead it relies on its own endowment income and gifts.

Stanford University

Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university located in the census-designated place of Stanford, California, near the city of Palo Alto. The campus occupies 8,180 acres (3,310 hectares), among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is ranked among the top universities in the world.Stanford was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., who had died of typhoid fever at age 15 the previous year. Leland Stanford was a U.S. senator and former governor of California who made his fortune as a railroad tycoon. The school admitted its first students on October 1, 1891, as a coeducational and non-denominational institution. Stanford University struggled financially after the death of Leland Stanford in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates' entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what would later be known as Silicon Valley.The university is organized around seven schools: three schools consisting of 40 academic departments at the undergraduate level as well as four professional schools that focus on graduate programs in law, medicine, education, and business. All schools are on the same campus. Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the university is one of two private institutions in the Division I FBS Pac-12 Conference. Stanford has won 137 NCAA team championships, more than any other university, and was awarded the NACDA Directors' Cup for 25 consecutive years, beginning in 1994–1995. In addition, by 2021, Stanford students and alumni had won at least 296 Olympic medals including 150 gold and 79 silver medals.As of April 2021, 85 Nobel laureates, 29 Turing Award laureates, and eight Fields Medalists have been affiliated with Stanford as students, alumni, faculty, or staff. In addition, Stanford is particularly noted for its entrepreneurship and is one of the most successful universities in attracting funding for start-ups. Stanford alumni have founded numerous companies, which combined produce more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue and have created 5.4 million jobs as of 2011, roughly equivalent to the 7th largest economy in the world (as of 2020). Stanford is the alma mater of one president of the United States (Herbert Hoover), 74 living billionaires, and 17 astronauts. It is also one of the leading producers of Fulbright Scholars, Marshall Scholars, Rhodes Scholars, and members of the United States Congress.