printable versionBarnum Family Center makes debut in renovated building
The building that used to house the Career Development Center has undergone a $5.6 million renovation and expansion to reopen this fall as the Barnum Family Center for School and Community Partnerships.
Five years after a fire closed the Career Development Center in the heart of campus, the building has undergone a $5.6 million renovation and expansion to reopen this fall as the Barnum Family Center for School and Community Partnerships.
New tenants of the building, now part of the Stanford University School of Education (SUSE), include the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities, the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute, the School Redesign Network and the Stanford Center on Adolescence.
"SUSE has expanded a lot in the last few years to work in partnership with local schools," said Deborah Stipek, dean of the School of Education. "All the programs in the Barnum Center are moving outside the university and connecting directly with practice. There is an underlying theme of addressing real-world problems."
Located between the Stanford Bookstore and the clock tower on Lasuen Mall, the building has been expanded and designed to foster social connections, Stipek said. A new patio, kitchen and meeting room were incorporated into the plan to encourage "people to bump into each other" and share and develop ideas, she said.
A $3 million core gift from alumni Bill and Donnalisa Barnum was supplemented by an anonymous gift, facilities funding and insurance coverage from the 2001 fire, Stipek said.