110 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM Lifelong Students So why the academic aesthetic? “Attending university can be such an impactful time in somebody’s life,” reflects David Joseph. “There’s a sense of excitement and novelty leaving home for the first time!” He adds, “Some of our best memories and some of our biggest memories come in that transition from youth to adulthood. We really try to lean into those stories.” Designed for and by lifelong learners and curious souls, almost every design detail—and we mean everything—is location-specific, paying tribute to Stanford, its history or the surrounding California landscape. Take the hallways, often a nebulous in-between space in hotels. Not so at Graduate Palo Alto. David points out the native aviary woven into the carpet: our state bird, the California quail, as well as the finch, northern mockingbird and American kestrel. “I’m strangely a snob about hotel hallway carpeting,” David admits, “because it’s one of those things that either has too much personality or zero personality—and I love that ours tells a story.” The carpet also features a series of numbers that mirror Stanford class plaques found in the campus quad. Since 1896, graduating seniors have left behind time capsules—and the numbers at the hotel correspond to milestone years at the University. “There are people in this building who can tell you the story of each number and say, ‘Oh, this is the year when the Queen of England came and visited Stanford,” notes David. Push all the elevator buttons, and the door will open on curated collections of Stanford-themed memorabilia on the opposing wall. Everything— whether it’s sheet music, sports memorabilia, historic photos or old maps—references back to those time capsules. The academic narrative extends to the rooms. After you manage to pry your eyes from the wild botanical wallpaper, you’ll find that the wall art pays homage to Stanford alumni. A framed cover of Mice and Men tips its hat to John Steinbeck, while the sketching of a comely undergrad reveals a studentaged Sigourney Weaver. The cluster of redwood trees on the headboards is also a nice touch, representing both Palo Alto’s namesake as well as the Stanford band’s unusual mascot. Not even David has identified all the hidden references tucked throughout the hotel. “There’s a really robust sense of design that keeps you discovering every day. There are a million small details. Every day I’m in this building, I learn something new,” he reflects. “It’s fun to be in a space where we truly are all still students.”
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