About the Center
Expanding Stanford's Role in Global Education and Research
Befitting its strategic location on the Pacific Rim, Stanford is home to many of the world's leading scholars on China and Asia. While the University's regional programs are expanding, equally important is the growing interest in China among Stanford faculty and students in the sciences, engineering, medicine, law, business, and education. All of Stanford's schools and research institutes have activities in China, ranging from research to student exchange and study programs.
SCPKU will serve as a base of operations for anyone in the Stanford community seeking to advance research or education by spending time in China to pursue fieldwork, coursework or internships; to collaborate with Chinese colleagues; to examine world issues as they play out in China; or to study China, its people, and policies through firsthand experience. This new center will accelerate a two-way flow of people, ideas, research, scholarship and training, beneficial to both China and the United States. Stanford views the Center as the hub of a long-term and deepening presence in Asia, and as a model for possible future presence in other regions of the world.
More Than a Building
The Stanford Center at Peking University represents the culmination of a long-term partnership between the two Universities. For over 30 years, Peking University and Stanford have sponsored faculty and student exchanges, as well as joint courses, research projects and conferences. Formal arrangements already exist between PKU and a growing number of Stanford programs including the Department of Asian Languages, Summer Chinese Language Program, Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, School of Engineering, School of Law, and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. For the next quarter century, the Center will expand the PKU relationship by making it easier to grow established and initiate new collaborative programs between the two institutions to support activities and opportunities on both sides of the Pacific.
| September 2011 | Three sides of the siheyuan courtyard building under way. |  |
| July 2011 | Light wells bring natural light to lower levels of the building. |  |
| May 2011 | Building rises to the mezzanine level. The atrium opening and a few of the building's two-story light wells can be seen at the right. |  |
| February 2011 | Excavation completed. |  |
| Sept. 1, 2010 | Construction begins. | |
| April 7, 2010 | Peking University President Zhou Qifeng and Stanford Provost John Etchemendy sign 26-year Building Agreement. |  |
| July 22, 2009 | Provost approves plan for a three-story building. | |
| June 25, 2009 | Peking University President Zhou Qifeng visits Stanford for discussions with President Hennessy, Engineering Dean Jim Plummer and incoming GSB Dean Garth Saloner. | |
| June 2008 | SCPKU project team visits Peking University for a site inspection and design discussions. | |
| April 21, 2008 | President Hennessy and Stanford deans and faculty visit PKU to explore new collaborative programs that SCPKU will enable. President Hennessy and Chairman Min Weifang sign memorandum of understanding to build the center at Langrun Yuan. | |
| January-March 2008 | Environmental assessment and geotechnical analysis of the site is performed. | |
| February 2008 | Stanford University engages Mo Atelier Szeto, a leading Beijing architectural firm, to design the SCPKU building. | |
| Nov. 6, 2007 | Peking University Chairman Min Weifang visits Stanford for planning discussions with President Hennessy, Professors Jean Oi and Andrew Walder, and other Stanford faculty. |  |
| October 2007 | President John Hennessy and PKU President Xu Zhihong sign letter of intent. | |
| March 2007 | Planning begins to establish Stanford's first all-university resource outside of the United States. |
