Deconstructing Lou Henry Hoover Building

According to the Palo Alto Daily Post, “in May 1964, [the] Stanford Board of Trustees voted to allocate $500,000 toward the construction of a new building in honor of Herbert Hoover’s 90th birthday. The building opened in 1967 and was named after Hoover’s wife, Lou Henry Hoover, at his request.”

Now that building, one of two flanking Hoover Tower, has come down and will be replaced by a building named in honor of former Secretary of State George P. Shultz. The deconstruction project diverted nearly 2,400 tons of concrete to a recovery facility in Brisbane, California. Concrete is “downcycled” rather than “recycled” because old concrete cannot be turned into new concrete. Instead, it is crushed into aggregate, which can be used in pavement, for erosion control (in riprap or seawalls), or as an ingredient for making more concrete. Nevertheless, recovering concrete has a lower environmental impact than sending it to landfills or using natural coarse aggregate (i.e., mined stone).

Two Stanford sites still pay tribute to Mrs. Hoover, a woman accomplished in her own right in addition to being the wife of the 31st president of the United States. The observation deck and carillon at neighboring Hoover Tower and the 1919 house designed by Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover, now used as the residence of the university president, are both named in her honor.