In Northern California’s Silicon Valley, ideas move at the speed of code. Stanford University in Palo Alto is furthering this progress with its new Computing and Data Science building, which functions more like a connective network than a standalone object. The 167,000-square-foot CoDa, as the coeds call it, is by Seattle-based LMN, which, ranking 141st among Interior Design’s Rising Giants, specializes in large-scale, sustainable, and community-focused civic, academic, and mixed-use projects that redefine urban infrastructure—and this project follows suit.

Both client and architect believe in “collaborative innovation,” that tech and data science are enhanced with the liberal arts, and CoDa expresses this ethos of cross-pollination. In addition to providing much-needed office and study spaces for Stanford’s engineering school, CoDa’s classrooms also serve all seven of the university’s schools, including the humanities. “The idea was to bridge these sciences to other academic disciplines on campus, and, ultimately, the outside world,” LMN principal Stephen Demayo explains.

A feature is the central “mixing” chamber containing a precast-concrete stair that spans the structure’s five floors. The pattern of its perforated-aluminum balustrades, which have been powder-coated Stanford Cardinal red, was devised from 8-bit binary code, nodding to computer language while revealing views of adjacent lounges. Acoustic felt baffles above those lounges introduce movement, suggesting the flow of ideas between people and subject matters. Outside, the ovoid form engages a busy campus thoroughfare, its vertical terra-cotta fins fittingly doing double duty: referencing the materiality of the campus’s historic architecture and providing shade from the California sun.