Buck Institute for Research on Aging

I. M. Pei was so taken with the institute's mission that he unexpectedly answered the request for proposals for its campus. Planning began in 1989 and construction in July 1996, and the first phase was completed in July 1999, the year the institute opened. The lead designers were I. M. Pei and L. C. Pei; the firm provided site planning and full architectural services, with the Office of Dan Kiley as associate architect.

Pei's original design, which became part of the institute's master plan, provides for a five-building complex. The first phase covered two of its parts: the administration building and a first research module.

The land, a 488-acre spread of pasture at the base of Mount Burdell west of Highway 101, has views of the surrounding hills and, beyond them, of San Francisco and the Bay. The buildings wear a honey-toned travertine chosen to match the golden grasses of the hills, and every one of them faces these views. The layout is meant to multiply encounters between scientists: a glazed walkway ties the parts together, and the laboratory modules cluster around central atria that let daylight in.

The public comes in through the administration building, where outreach programmes and an auditorium of 230 seats are reached from a broad exhibition hall lit from above. In the middle, the one-acre six-sided courtyard is meant as a green refuge, for quiet reflection as much as for activities outdoors.

The campus hosts multidisciplinary research into aging, Alzheimer's disease and the other illnesses that diminish older people's lives.

The campus sits 25 miles north of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. From Highway 101, turn onto Redwood Boulevard, then climb Buck Center Drive to the visitors' car park on the hilltop. Free guided visits take place twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 11, after signing up online.