Completed in 2018, the Stanford ChEM-H and the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute is a state-of-the-art, interdisciplinary research complex and a major campus hub. Ennead Architects took as inspiration the courtyard building typology that proliferates across Stanford University’s campus, updating it to suit the new building’s central location at the crossroads between the School of Medicine and the Science and Engineering Quad. The result is a porous, collaborative, multi-programmed, 231,883-square-foot facility—essentially rectangular in plan, but sliced through by a bold diagonal pedestrian axis and a monumental oval-shaped courtyard at its center. The fully glazed courtyard serves as a magnetic focus for the building’s many users and activities, knitting together the community experience.  

The building envelope consists of five main curtain wall types, each custom-designed to achieve the architects’ design intent. These include story-height insulating glass units with reinforced mullions at the inner courtyard. Throughout, Heintges advised on and refined the design of sun shading for four of the five main curtain wall systems, comprised of various vertical aluminum exterior fins-straight and bent plate with mica finish—to reduce solar gain in Stanford’s sunny climate.  

The use of exterior sun shading was key to the building design and facade expression, providing a transparent building that would underscore the architects’ goal of visual connection and a sense of openness, while supporting performance requirements for interior thermal comfort and reduced energy use.  

Heintges provided building envelope consulting services during all phases of design.