Stanford University Medical Center Building
Landscape Architect: Tony Sinkowski/ Pete Walker & Associates
Grower and Consultant: Tornello Nurseries
Landscape Architect Tony Sinkowski, with Pete Walker and Associates, of Berkley, CA, hired Robert Tornello as a consultant to the project. Tornello worked closely with the group to design on-structure and at-grade planters. Further, he created custom soil-mixes, reviewed environmental and irrigation issues, and made important recommendations for lighting the project.
Over 500 culms of 2.5-4.0”-diameter were used; these were grown in 42” pots with 7-9 major culms each. Four separate 53’ climate-controlled trailers transported the bamboo across the country.
Tornello bamboo soaring through multiple levels of the Medical Center.
Stanford University students and staff travel around an elegant campus comprised of sandstone buildings with barrel-tiled roofs. And here is an unexpected departure from the architectural norm: The Medical Center Building, its modern appearance softened and enhanced by Phyllostachys nigra Henon bamboo, grown at Tornello Nurseries’ Florida facility.
This is a striking timber bamboo with warm, silver-gray culms that complement the building’s stainless-steel elements and provide a visual buffer between this structure and its sister building some 100 feet away. A park-like serenity was afforded each space. People can gather beneath the bamboo to socialize; sometimes, though, they just seek a quiet moment under P. nigra Henon’s forest-sized canopies.